Zen of Python
Andrew Koenig
ark at acm.org
Sat Jan 22 12:33:49 EST 2005
"Paul Rubin" <http://phr.cx@NOSPAM.invalid> wrote in message
news:7x8y6l8k6l.fsf at ruckus.brouhaha.com...
> It's not obvious to me how the compiler can tell. Consider:
>
> x = 3
> if frob():
> frobbed = True
> squares = [x*x for x in range(9)]
> if blob():
> z = x
>
> Should the compiler issue a warning saying the program should be taken
> out and shot? With lexical comprehensions, the program is perfectly
> valid and sets z to 3 if blob() is true. The whole point of lexical
> comprhensions is to make Python safe for such programs.
>
> Without lexical comprehensions, the program still doesn't depend on
> the listcomp leakage if frob() and blob() aren't simultaneously true
> (envision "assert not frobbed" before the "z = x"). So "should be
> taken out and shot" is maybe a little bit extreme.
Actually, I don't think so. If you intend for it to be impossible for "z =
x" to refer to the x in the list comprehension, you shouldn't mind putting
in "from __future__ import lexical_comprehensions." If you don't intend for
it to be impossible, then the program *should* be taken out and shot.
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