replacing `else` with `then` in `for` and `try`

[Steve D'Aprano]

On Thu, 2 Nov 2017 08:23 am, Ned Batchelder wrote:

> Apart from the questions of backward compatibility etc (Python is
> unlikely to ever go through another shift like the 2/3 breakage), are
> you sure "then" is what you mean?  This won't print "end":
> 
>  for i in range(10):
>      print(i)
>  else:
>      print(end)


You are neither the first nor the last person to have mistakenly understood
the "else" clause to run only if the main loop does not.

It is a common error. I've done it. And this demonstrates exactly why the
choice of keyword is so poor. If somebody of your experience can misread it,
I don't feel so bad about how long it too me to understand it when I was a
newbie.



-- 
Steve
“Cheer up,” they said, “things could be worse.” So I cheered up, and sure
enough, things got worse.