[Tutor] beginning to code

[Steve D'Aprano]

On Mon, 18 Sep 2017 07:37 am, Rick Johnson wrote:

> Consider the collowing code:
> 
>     if bool(someObject) == True:
>         # Do something
>         
> Yes, from a "byte-code perspective", this source code is
> superfluous, 

This is bad code because it is bad SOURCE CODE. The byte code is irrelevant.

You wouldn't write this:

    if (len(mystring) == 1) == True:

because that's just stupid, the equality comparison returns a bool so testing
against True is redundant and adds no clarity, just noise. Nor would you write:

    if (numchars > 2) == True:

because the greater than comparison returns a bool and so testing against True
is redundant and adds no clarity, just noise.

And you wouldn't write:

    if (argument is None) == True:

because the `is` comparison returns a bool and testing it against True is
redundant and adds no clarity, just noise.

Nor would you write:

    condition = some_string.startswith('x') == True
    result = process(args, flag=(condition == True))

because in both lines you already have a bool and comparing a bool to True is
just redundant and adds noise.

And surely you wouldn't write:

    results = sorted(values, reverse=(False==True))

Or would you? Maybe you would do all these things, in which case you're an even
worse programmer than I thought.

Your example of 

    if bool(someObject) == True:

is no different from any of these examples. bool(someObject) returns a bool;
comparing it to True adds redundancy and noise, not clarity.

Your insistence on adding the entirely superfluous, unnecessary and
distracting "== True" at the end of something which is already True or False
demonstrates a lack of fluency in the language and difficulty in reasoning
about boolean logic.




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