PEP 285: Adding a bool type

[Steve Holden]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Max M" <maxm at mxm.dk>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.python
To: "Steve Holden" <sholden at holdenweb.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 2:30 AM
Subject: Re: PEP 285: Adding a bool type


> Steve Holden wrote:
>
>
> > Arguably, most of that code should have read
> >
> >     if ret:
> >         ...
> >
> > rather than
> >
> >     if ret == None:
> >         ...
> >
> > since the latter has the flavor of "if expr==True".
> >
> > So, is breaking bad code more excusable than breaking good code ;-)?
>
>
> Oh I don't think so. This is a common idiom:
>
> def f(names=None):
>      if names == None:
>          names = []
>      ...
>
Should anyway have been

    if not ret:
        ...

but certainly when you are chossing between two false values you have to be
explicit about which is the sentinel.

regards
 Steve