[Python-Dev] re: syntax feedback from LANL course (very long)

[Tim Peters]

[about "and while", and generalization to "and if"]

[Christian Tismer]
> Yes I'm still ashamed on that. It may be that Guido was about
> to say "perhaps" (as worthy as a woman's "perhaps", you know),
> but I went too far and killed it by "and if". Sigh...
> SORRY!

Don't apologize to me!  I *thank* you -- "and while" is excessively novel (a
phrase I'm using excessively often lately <wink>, but one that I think
captures the things about Python I like least).  The world has many
conventional, perfectly clear ways to spell this kind of thing already.  The
only thing stopping Python from adopting one is Keyword Fear (which I share,
but not to the extent of eternal paralysis <0.9 wink>).

> ...
> Oh, much simpler: We have it all ready :)
>
> Just make "while 1:" into a keyword, like the #end block delimiters.

It's a needless initial barrier to language acceptance, but more importantly
it's plainly bad pedagogics to model a "loop and a half" via a construct
that *says* "do this while true", i.e. do this forever.  Not a disaster, but
surely deserving of the "wart" Andrew gives it.

at-heart-it's-a-simple-problem-with-a-simple-fix-ly y'rs  - tim