[Python-Dev] dict containment annoyance

[Guido van Rossum]

On 8/13/06, Scott Dial <scott+python-dev at scottdial.com> wrote:
> FWIW, I think the logic of swallowing the TypeError is completely
> reasonable.

Then you haven't debugged enough Python programs.

Swallowing an exception of *any* kind is always a trap waiting to shut
when you least expect it, because you have no control over what other
operations might cause an exception.

E.g. when you write

try:
  hash(x)
except TypeError:
  # apparently x is not hashable

then you're also swallowing any type errors in the computation of a
legitimate hash function.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)