On Wednesday 17 August 2016 06:59, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
> On Wednesday, August 17, 2016 at 6:46:22 AM UTC+12, alister wrote:
>> I don't think I am missing anything by not bothering with them YMMV
>
> Here
> <http://ldo17.tumblr.com/post/17544419704/conditional-expressions-in-python>
> are some examples of that varying mileage.
Quote:
The Python syntax for conditional expressions (introduced in Python 2.5) is
trueval if cond else falseval
I think this is bloody awful. Why couldn’t they have adopted the standard C
syntax, as used in a whole bunch of other C-derivative languages?
cond ? trueval : falseval
Because the C syntax is horrifically ugly, whereas the Python syntax is very
close to real English syntax.
"What will you do tonight?"
"Go to the movies, if I finish work on time, otherwise just go home."
Every time you read the C syntax, you lose another three minutes off your
lifespan. That's how ugly it is.
The background to the Python ternary operator is documented here:
https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0308/
Rather than ask why Python uses `trueval if cond else falseval`, you should ask
why C uses `cond ? trueval : falseval`. Is that documented anywhere?
--
Steve
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