The rap against "while True:" loops

[Philip Semanchuk]

On Oct 11, 2009, at 5:51 PM, bartc wrote:

> Mensanator wrote:
>> On Oct 10, 3:15�pm, kj <no.em... at please.post> wrote:
>>> I'm coaching a group of biologists on basic Python scripting. �One
>>> of my charges mentioned that he had come across the advice never
>>> to use loops beginning with "while True". �Of course, that's one
>>> way to start an infinite loop, but this seems hardly a sufficient
>>> reason to avoid the construct altogether, as long as one includes
>>> an exit that is always reached. �(Actually, come to think of it,
>>> there are many situations in which a bona fide infinite loops
>>> (typically within a try: block) is the required construct, e.g.
>>> when implementing an event loop.)
>>>
>>> I use "while True"-loops often, and intend to continue doing this
>>> "while True", but I'm curious to know: how widespread is the
>>> injunction against such loops? �Has it reached the status of "best
>>> practice"?
>>
>> If you know this "exit that is always reached",
>> why do you pretend not to know it by writing
>> "while True"?
>
> When I'm starting to code something I haven't yet fully worked out,  
> it often starts with an infinite loop like this, until the body is  
> coded and I've figured out how to escape from it.
>
> At the end if may or may not be tidied up, depending on how much  
> work it is to reconcile several possible break points into a single  
> terminating condition to be place at one end, and whether that is  
> likely to break or obfuscate a currently working program.
>
> But if it's never going to be seen by the brigade who hate all  
> break, exit, goto and multiple return statements, then I won't bother.

I think you bring up a good point. I think "while True" has some  
legitimate uses (like event loops), and I don't mind seeing it there.  
What I don't like is goto, and to a lesser extent break, exit, and  
multiple returns. I don't find too many cases where they're the  
clearest way to express things. And where one sees a "while True", one  
can almost always find a "break" or two lurking in the loop.

IMHO, break, goto, etc. have their place, but they're ripe for abuse  
which leads to spaghetti code. Since the OP is teaching non- 
programmers to write code, I think the potential for abuse is  
especially important to keep in mind. I'd think that teaching them a  
tool like "while True" would encourage the "code now, design later"  
trap that even experienced programmers -- including myself --  
sometimes fall into. Writing "while <condition>" instead forces one to  
stop at the beginning of the loop and think at least a little about  
exactly what it's meant to accomplish.

In addition, isn't it easier to figure out how this loop ends --

    while (condition1) and (condition2) and (condition3):
        ...lots of code here...

than this one?

    while True:
        ...lots of code here...
        if not condition1:
           break
        ...lots of code here...
        if not condition2:
           break
        ...lots of code here...
        if not condition3:
           break


My $.02,
Philip