map/filter/reduce/lambda opinions and background unscientific mini-survey

[Stian Søiland]

On 2005-07-06 16:33:47, Ron Adam wrote:

> *No more NamesError exceptions!
>      print value
>      >> None

So you could do lot's of funny things like:
    
    def my_fun(extra_args=None):
        if not extraargs:
            print "Behave normally"
            extra_args = 1337

        if extraargs:
            asdkjaskdj
        ..    
        if extra_args:
            kajsdkasjd

and get no errors at all, but switching back and forth between the
different behavours because you actually did expect None, but from an
EXISTING variable.
            
> *No initialization needed for a while loop!
> 
>      while not something:
>          if <condition>:
>              something = True

This is the only "good" case I could find, but opening for a lots of
errors when you get used to that kind of coding:

    while not finished:
        foo()
        finished = calculate_something()

    (..)
    (..)  # Added another loop
    while not finished:
        bar()
        finished = other_calculation()    

Guess the amount of fun trying to find out the different errors that
could occur when bar() does not run as it should because the previous
"finished" variable changes the logic.

If you want to experiment with such designs, all you need to do is to
start your code with <?php


> *Test if name exists without using a try-except!
>      if something == None:
>          something = value

Now this is a question from newcomers on #python each day.. "How do I
check if a variable is set?".

Why do you want to check if a variable is set at all? If you have so
many places the variable could or could not be set, your program design
is basically flawed and must be refactored.

-- 
Stian Søiland               Work toward win-win situation. Win-lose
Trondheim, Norway           is where you win and the other lose.
http://soiland.no/          Lose-lose and lose-win are left as an
                            exercise to the reader.  [Limoncelli/Hogan]