for / while else doesn't make sense

Jon Ribbens jon+usenet at unequivocal.co.uk
Sun May 22 21:00:14 EDT 2016


On 2016-05-23, Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 10:36 AM, Jon Ribbens
><jon+usenet at unequivocal.co.uk> wrote:
>> On 2016-05-22, Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:
>>> On Mon, 23 May 2016 01:52 am, Jon Ribbens wrote:
>>>> On 2016-05-22, Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:
>>>>> How is this any better though? Complicated or not, people want to divide
>>>>> 1 by 2 and get 0.5. That is the functional requirement. Furthermore, they
>>>>> want to use the ordinary division symbol / rather than having to import
>>>>> some library or call a function.
>>>>
>>>> That's a circular argument. You're defining the result as the
>>>> requirement and then saying that proves the result is necessary.
>>>> Clearly, people managed when 1/2 returned 0, and continue to do so
>>>> today in Python 2 and other languages.
>>>
>>> I'm not defining the result. 4000+ years of mathematics defines the result.
>>
>> OK, I'm bored of you now. You clearly are not willing to imagine
>> a world beyond your own preconceptions. I am not saying that my view
>> is right, I'm just saying that yours is not automatically correct.
>> If you won't even concede that much then this conversation is pointless.
>
> The point of arithmetic in software is to do what mathematics defines.
> Would you expect 1+2 to return 5? No. Why not? Where was the result
> defined?

Are you trying to compete with him for the Missing The Point Award?



More information about the Python-list mailing list