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

[Ron Adam]

Tom Anderson wrote:

>> del -> delete
> 
> 
> How about just getting rid of del? Removal from collections could be 
> done with a method call, and i'm not convinced that deleting variables 
> is something we really need to be able to do (most other languages 
> manage without it).

Since this is a Python 3k item...  What would be the consequence of 
making None the default value of an undefined name?  And then assigning 
a name to None as a way to delete it?

Some benefits
=============

*No more NamesError exceptions!

     print value
     >> None

     value = 25
     print value
     >> 25

     value = None    #same as 'del value'


*No initialization needed for a while loop!

     While not something:
         if <condition>:
             something = True


*Test if name exists without using a try-except!

     if something == None:
         something = value


*And of course one less keyword!


Any drawbacks?


Cheers,
Ron

PS...  not much sleep last night, so this may not be well thought out.