while true: !!!

[Oldayz]

On 12 Dec 2000 21:45:23 +0100, Carel Fellinger <cfelling at iae.nl> wrote:
>Alex Martelli <aleaxit at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Firmitas, Utilitas, Venustas -- in *THIS* order, as Vitruvius
>
>No no, Beauty is the one and true guiding principle, Beauty and Simplicity.
>The trouble being that what one perceives as beauty has ever so much to do
>with ones upbringing. And elas, there are very few with an eye for Beauty.
>
>A lot of us were raised in a time were it was frowned upon to use goto's
>or multi-exit loops.  We were made believe that for-loops, while's,
>repeat-untils were fundamentally different beasts, whilest they were
>but minor variants of that (B|b)eatiful basic loop construct that was
>attributed earlier on in this thread to Knuth himself. 
>
>> "Infinite" loops are hardly ever appropriate -- loops normally
>> do terminate (although it may be appropriate to model, with
>> an "infinite" loop, one that is intended to run until the
>> machine itself is turned off, for example).  However, loops
>> that are meant to "cycle until told othewise" (are terminated
>> by an exception, a signal, or a condition best computed inside
>> the body of the loop itself) are extremely common.  If your
>> aesthetic sense interferes with their effective and idiomatic
>> usage, then it is most likely leading you astray.
>
>He is just hindered by his upbringing:), and has yet to appreciate
>the simplicity you get using that raw and basic loop construct in
>those rare cases where it is really needed.
>
>On the other hand, I still detest the way this construct is spelled in
>Python, would have prefered (I think) something like:
>
>loop: suite
>break <condition>: suite
>...
>
>but then, this wouldn't be general enough. Thus the only thing I would
>change would be to introduce "while:" as a shortcut for while 1:", and
>I would be thrilled, aesthetic wise that is.

I thought about the same thing, but then I thought something like
forever: would be even more lucid, although it sounds a little
silly.. 


-- 

	Andrei