True inconsistency in Python

[Erik Max Francis]

Ron Adam wrote:

> The main inconsistencies of 'True' and 'False'  are due to the
> possibility of the names 'True' and 'False' being reassigned.
> 
> And the best way to fix this is by making 'True' and 'False'  literals
> or constants.

But True and False are no different from None, int, str, or any of the
other builtins.

> It looks to me the benefits of changing this one item are worthwhile,
> and the drawbacks if it very low.  It is also consistent to have them
> as basic constants and/or literals in the same way digits and the
> alphabet are.   The values True and False are to Type boo()  as digits
> are to int() or floats(),  and as the alphabet is to string().

But, as I said, you're not going to run into this problem unless you're
doing unsafe things already (like `from module import *'), or letting
people you don't trust edit your source.  I don't see this as a big
problem.

Accidental rebindings of things like int, str, and other builtin
types/functions with common names seem _far_ more common than
"accidentally" rebinding True or False.

> So they have not special property of there own.  From what I
> understand,  being a built in is a matter of where the code is, and
> doesn't have anything to do with what it does.  It's a practical
> matter that the most frequently used items are built ins.

Yes.  And builtins other than True and False are far more frequently
accidentally rebound.

> So the inconsistency I saw was in that True and False are not treated
> the same as other types made up from literals.   1 is always equal to
> 1,  and it's never equal to 2.  The same can't be said for True and
> False and bool(),

It's not true for int, either.

> Terry Reedy has pointed out to me that this will likely be changed in
> the future.  I think it will make Python more consistent by preventing
> the possible reassignments of True, False, and None.

It will change in the sense that rebinding these names may result in
warnings or errors (already there's a warning for rebinding None in the
usual way), not that they'll become literals.

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