Why not allow empty code blocks?

[Random832]

On Sat, Jul 30, 2016, at 22:10, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> "while True" doesn't merely emulate an infinite loop, it implements an
> infinite loop without needing dedicated syntax, byte-code or
> implementation. 

Er, it's not like it would need dedicated byte code anyway. The bytecode
of an infinite loop is just an unconditional backward jump*, which we
already have. The peephole optimizer already takes care of it (which
_could_ be considered dedicated implementation; even if it's general
enough to also work with "if True", how many of those do you figure
there really are?)

One argument that exists in favor of a dedicated infinite loop (and
dedicated finite repetition loop) syntax, which I don't personally think
applies to Python, is that the condition (and the whole construct for
"for i in range", for finite repetitions) means additional concepts that
have to be introduced at the same time to people being taught
programming for the first time.

*in fact, the bytecode of while already contains an unconditional
backward jump; there's a conditional forward jump at the top - which is
eliminated, I assume by the peephole optimizer, when the loop condition
is a truthy constant.