[Python-ideas] True and False are singletons

[Cameron Simpson]

On 18Mar2019 08:10, Eric Fahlgren <ericfahlgren at gmail.com> wrote:
>On Mon, Mar 18, 2019 at 7:04 AM Rhodri James <rhodri at kynesim.co.uk> wrote:
>> On 18/03/2019 12:19, Richard Damon wrote:
>> > On 3/18/19 7:27 AM, Greg Ewing wrote:
>> >> Juancarlo Añez wrote:
>> >>
>> >>>     if settings[MY_KEY] is True:
>> >>>         ...
>> >>
>> >> If I saw code like this, it would take a really good argument to
>> >> convince me that it shouldn't be just
>> >>
>> >>      if settings[MY_KEY]:
>> >>          ...
>> >>
>> > That means something VERY different. The first asks if the item is
>> > specifically the True value, while the second just asks if the value is
>> > Truthy, it wold be satisfied also for values like 1.
>>
>> Yes.  And the latter is what people almost always mean.
>
>No, it depends heavily on the context.  In GUI code, Oleg's example
>(tri-state checkbox) is a pervasive idiom.  There's lots of code that says
>"if x is True" or "if x is False" or "if x is None" and that's a very clear
>indicator that you are dealing with these "booleans that can also be
>'unset'".

Yeah, but on a personal basis I would generally write such an idiom as 
"if x is None: ... elif x: truthy-action else: falsey-action" i.e. only 
rely on a singleton for the "not set" sentinel (usually None, 
occasionally something else).

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <cs at cskk.id.au>