On Tuesday, May 5, 2015 at 6:50:29 PM UTC+5:30, BartC wrote: > On 05/05/2015 09:19, Steven D'Aprano wrote: > > On Tuesday 05 May 2015 08:02, BartC wrote: > > >> (I think I would have picked up "++" and "--" as special tokens even if > >> increment/decrement ops weren't supported. Just because they would > >> likely cause errors through misunderstanding.) > > > > Just because C made a mistake, doesn't mean other languages have to > > slavishly follow it. > > I would have thought there was more rapport between the two languages. > Python is often implemented in C and extensions are often implemented in > C, suggesting there are quite a few people familiar with both, sometimes > in areas that are critical (ie. creating code that will affect thousands > of Python apps).
There are mistakes and there are mistakes. Like there are crimes and crimes, some get community service, some get death sentence > > So why pretend that ++ and -- don't exist? After all Python borrows "=", > "==" and "!=" from C. > > (Writing a==b instead of a=b is less likely in Python than in a language > where a=b is an equality test rather than assignment. But I've used just > such a language where mistakenly writing a=b (which happens when > switching between languages) caused difficult-to-find bugs. Yeah I happen to me in that minuscule minority that regards '= denotes assignment' a bigger mistake than ++ Interestingly K&R admitted to the fact that the precedences of C have errors; in particular x&y == 0x1 groups wrong and so invariably requires brackets. Unfortunately no such admission for the choice of the most ubiquitous operator =. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
