Voting for PEP 308 (was Re: For review: PEP 308 - If-then-else expression)

[Aahz]

In article <3E4544F9.4011E0AB at alcyone.com>,
Erik Max Francis  <max at alcyone.com> wrote:
>Aahz wrote:
>>
>> Well, I'm certainly flattered.  I should note formally for the record
>> that I'm opposed to PEP 308, but I think I've cultivated a sufficient
>> record for honesty that it shouldn't matter.  If other people want me
>> to
>> do this, here's how I plan to run the vote:
>> 
>> The vote would run in two stages:
>> 
>> * The first stage would simply be in favor or opposing the idea of a
>> ternary operator.  It would require a minimum of 2/3 or 3/4
>> supermajority
>> to advance to the next stage. ...
>> 
>> * The second stage would be voting on particular forms of the ternary
>> operator. ...
>
>Uh, why the two stages with the absolute block in the middle?  Why
>wouldn't it be the reverse -- a vote of people who _want_ one, rather
>than people who don't want one?  If a positive vote pass, it would be a
>clear indicator that the community is in favor of such a thing; you seem
>to be taking the reverse approach, and are looking for ways to shoot the
>proposal down.
>
>Is it because you're opposed to the PEP?

Nope.  There are two aspects to my proposed system.  First of all, Guido
said in PEP 308, "if this PEP is approved with a clear majority, it will
be implemented in Python 2.4."  To me, "clear majority" implies
supermajority -- but Guido will ultimately make that decision.  I'm just
going to publish the results.

Secondly, many people in favor of conditional expressions hate one or
more of the alternatives.

The two-stage approach *ameliorates* Guido's threat to forever banish
conditional expressions, by permitting people to vote in favor of
conditional expressions in general.

Laura Creighton in private e-mail suggested that I ought to reverse the
procedure and hold the vote on which flavor first.  Two reasons why not:
it's more work for me (if there's insufficient interest across the
community in general), and because I believe a passing vote would
mobilize more people in the Python community to think seriously about
which form they prefer.

I think that on balance I'm bending over backwards to be fair to both
sides.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

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