I've been doing a little c programming again (ouch!) and it's just hit me why python does not allow assignment inside expressions (as in c): because it is absolutely essential that all assignments are as visible as possible. In python the assignment is the declaration; when declarations are as cheap as this it's hard not to fall to the temptation to re-use a variable unknowingly. I am constantly scanning the line of assignments to see what variables are already live, and I just realised how easy it is to do that. Up to now I guess I thought it was just a restriction to stop new users of python from writing too obfuscated code.
wow. Simon. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
