PEP 1441: The other if-then-else issue

[holger krekel]

Tim Churches wrote:
> While the international Python community passionately debates PEP 308,
> we should not forget another issue which is worth getting hot under the
> collar about: the looming attack on Iraq over weapons of mass
> destruction (WMD). The US position (at least, this week's position)
> appears to be :
> 
> if not (immediate_evidence_of_past_destruction_of_WMD) then
> (fire_3000_cruise_missiles_at_Baghdad) else
> (find_some_other_reason_to_bomb_Baghdad)

Funny, that you off-topically mention this.  

Recently, i couldn't hold myself from drawing some parallels between
heated debates on PEP-308 and the ones over here in Europe (old and new)
regarding going to dubious "prevention" wars. So far at least the 
PEP-discussions have managed to avoid needless escalation which i 
highly appreciate. 

Both debates focus on a lot of details and there are a lot 
of good and bad arguments.  But IMHO both are distracting from the
the real challenges.  Plenty of bugs, PEPs and Python-developments 
to deal with and plenty of immediate problems with India/Pakistan, 
Israel/Paelestina, North-Korea and Afghanistan (where hardly even 
Kabul is under control). 

It's not obvious how PEP-308 and the Iraqi-crisis deserve this
much attention.  At least there are not ten thousands of people
dying from PEP-308, i guess. 

best regards,

    holger