[Python-Dev] conditional expressions?

Eric S. Raymond esr@thyrsus.com
Tue, 16 Oct 2001 01:54:32 -0400


Paul Svensson <paul-python@svensson.org>:
> On Mon, 15 Oct 2001, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> 
> >I'd be happy to discuss this more.  I'm *not* happy with responses
> >like "is this a bad joke?".  I don't understand how this could be an
> >argument in the arsenal of the anti-Python league.
> 
> I'm sorry if it hit a bad nerve,
> but I did skip this whole thread on c.l.py,
> thinking that this could surely not be seriously meant,
> so I guess don't have the understanding of the motivation
> behind the proposal that I could have had.
> 
> I know there's been a long time request for this feature,
> supposedly from people coming to Python from C,
> but what's the real reason for adding it now,
> without even a PEP ?
> Does it really add enough to the language to justify the bloat ?

I actually implemented this last year.

The less cumbersome syntax I suggest is:

a ? b ! c
-- 
		<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>

Everything you know is wrong.  But some of it is a useful first approximation.