[Python-Dev] PEP 3103: A Switch/Case Statement

[Guido van Rossum]

On 6/26/06, K.S.Sreeram <sreeram at tachyontech.net> wrote:
> Guido van Rossum wrote:
> > I think we need a PEP for const/static/only/cached/precomputed or
> > whatever people like to call it.
>
> fredrik's got a micro pep at http://online.effbot.org
>
> > Once we have (say) static, I think making the case expressions static
> > by default would still cover all useful cases, and would allow us to
> > diagnose duplicate cases reliably (which the if/elif chain semantics
> > don't allow IIUC).
>
> Making case expressions default static would be very surprising to users
> because of the restrictions placed by static. For instance 'case in a',
> will not support containers which have a custom __contains__ method. It
> will also not support containers like lists, and sets because they are
> mutable. IMHO this doesn't feel very pythonic.
>
> Instead if we redefine the goal of the switch statement to be 'ease of
> expression' rather than 'optimization', then it can just be used as a
> concise alternative to if-elif chains, and we can make 'case in a' work
> with all containers where a regular 'in' statement works *AND* still
> give the possibility of fast lookup when the programmer wants, using
> explicit static.
>
> I feel programmer expressivity is more important, and default static
> case expressions looks like premature optimization.

You've just placed yourself in School Ia (see the updated PEP). I
respectfully disagree.

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