[Python-Dev] conditional expressions - add parens?

Jeremy Hylton jeremy at alum.mit.edu
Tue Mar 7 14:06:46 CET 2006


On 3/6/06, Alex Martelli <aleaxit at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Mar 6, 2006, at 9:17 AM, Jim Jewett wrote:
>     ...
> > I think that adding parentheses would help, by at least signalling
> > that the logic is longer than just the next (single) expression.
> >
> >     level = (0 if "absolute_import" in self.futures else -1)
>
> +1 (just because I can't give it +3.1415926...!!!).  *Mandatory*
> parentheses make this form MUCH more readable.

Recent language features seem to be suffereing from excessive
parenthesisitis.  I worry that people will stop remembering which
expressions requirement parens in which context.  Perhaps the solution
is to require parens around all expressions, a simple consistent rule.
 If so, then adding parens around all statements is a fairly natural
extension, which solves a number of problems like how to make a richer
lambda.

Jeremy


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