Named code blockes

[Rainer Deyke]

Alex Martelli writes:
>
> > Unnamed blocks are a very powerful programming device.  As far as I can
>
> But where's the extra power in making them UNNAMED?  It's
> so easy to name them, after all.

Leaving things unnamed can make code a lot more readable (and writable).
Consider:

def f(a, b, c):
  return (-b + (b*b - 4*a*c) ** 0.5) / (2 * a)

vs.

def f(a, b, c):
  negative_b = -b
  b_squared = b*b
  four_a = 4 * a
  four_a_c = four_a * c
  b_squared_minus_four_a_c = b_squared - four_a_c
  radical_b_squared_minus_four_a_c = b_squared_minus_four_a_c ** 0.5
  numerator = negative_b + radical_b_squared_minus_four_a_c
  demoninator = 2 * a
  result = numerator / demominator
  return result


In Python, unnamed objects have an additional benefit: there is a single
consistent way of naming them.  Consider:

a = 5
b = lambda: None
def c():
  pass

These are three assignments, but only two look like assingments.  The
special syntax for the third case does not make it clear to newbies that 'c'
is a reference like any other which happens to refer to a function object.


--
Rainer Deyke (root at rainerdeyke.com)
Shareware computer games           -           http://rainerdeyke.com
"In ihren Reihen zu stehen heisst unter Feinden zu kaempfen" - Abigor