PEP308: Proposing function-call syntax

Erik Max Francis max at alcyone.com
Mon Feb 10 05:23:02 EST 2003


"Anders J. Munch" wrote:

> Yet-another PEP 308 proposal:
>     ifelse(condition, iftrue, iffalse)
> 
> That is, use plain old function call notation, but with 'ifelse' being
> a keyword recognised by the interpreter, so that arguments are only
> evaluated as necessary.
	....
> Con:
> Looks like a function call but isn't.  People might expect arguments
> to be fully evaluated.

This is a really big con.  It introduces a special form that looks like
a function call, something totally unprecedented in Python.  In fact,
the lack of special forms is one of Python's strengths, in my opinion: 
When I see code that looks like a function call, I know exactly what's
going on and what to expect.  Add this, and that assurance goes out the
window.

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