PEP308: Yet another syntax proposal

[Dave Brueck]

On Mon, 10 Feb 2003, Aahz wrote:

> In article <YUP1a.3080$SB2.242 at nwrddc03.gnilink.net>,
> Raymond Hettinger <python at rcn.com> wrote:
> >
> >I suggest:
> >
> >    cond  ??  val1  ||  val2
>
> +0.5
>
> I still have yet to see a clear explanation of why short-circuit is
> necessary

Short-circuit evaluation is never "necessary" in _any_ language - it's
just very, very useful sometimes. Python's 'and' operator doesn't _have_
to be a short-circuit operator, but it's far more useful because it is.

> and therefore iif() unreasonable.

Several of the previous examples have already illustrated this:

z = iif(x, x.getPref(), 'Not specified')

is broken without short-circuiting.

-Dave