PEP 308: A PEP Writer's Experience - PRO

[Erik Max Francis]

Andrew Dalke wrote:

> And I agree that its use will be rare.  I just think it will also be
> used incorrectly (when other more appropriate Python idioms
> are available) about 1/3 of the time.  C/C++ idioms dominate
> how many people think about programs, and so those constructs
> will come to mind often before the Python ones, even for people
> who are good Python programmers.

I cannot recall every seeing

	if (something ? this : that) ...

in either C or C++ code, so I don't see how C/C++ idioms dominating how
people think about anything is relevant here.  The construct is bad form
in any language, and I honestly cannot remember ever having seen it.

I don't doubt that _someone_, _somewhere_, will misuse a Python
conditional operator in this way.  I'm just saying that it will be so
rare in actual practice that it's not worth worrying about.  Say,
weren't you the guy who was making your case with frequency arguments?

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