Looping [was Re: Python and the need for speed]

[Marko Rauhamaa]

Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet at bsb.me.uk>:

> Marko Rauhamaa <marko at pacujo.net> writes:
>> What I notice in my numbers is that about one half of my while loops
>> are "while True", and about a third of my loops are while loops.
>
> I fo[u]nd the proportion on while True: loops surprising. Is there
> something about Python that encourages that kind of loop?

Here's a typical example of such a loop in Python (ver 2):

    while True:
        try:
            snippet = os.read(rdfd, 1000)
        except OSError as e:
            if e.errno == errno.EAGAIN:
                return
            raise
        if not snippet:
            break
        self.stdout_snippets.append(snippet)

I find myself writing similar loops in C a lot, as well.


Marko