[Tutor] Readability: To use certain Python features or not?

[alan.gauld at yahoo.co.uk]

   Personally I think the second is more reliable and maintainable so prefer
   it. If a reader is so new to python they don't know about get() then they
   need to look it up and learn. But OTOH a default dict might be better
   still!
   There is a difference between writing clever code that is unreadable and
   using standard language or library features that might be less well known.
   One is easy to look up, the other is just downright hard work and
   therefore fragile.
   On 27 Jun 2021 22:41, boB Stepp <robertvstepp at gmail.com> wrote:

     Questions inspired by an example from "Practical Programming, 3rd ed."
     by Gries, Campbell and Montojo.

     p. 221 example.  Compare:

     [...]
     bird_to_observations = {}
     for line in observations_file:
         bird = line.strip()
         if bird in bird_to_observations:
             bird_to_observations[bird] = bird_to_obserations[bird] + 1
         else:
             bird_to_observations[bird] = 1
     [...]

     to

     [...]
     bird_to_observations = {}
     for line in observations_file:
         bird = line.strip()
         bird_to_observations[bird] = bird_to_observations.get(bird, 0) + 1
     [...]

     The authors comment:  "Using the get method makes the program shorter,
     but some programmers find it harder to understand at a glance..."

     To my mind *if* the reader is fully familiar with Python the second
     example is both shorter and more expressive.  For the most
     maintainable code which of these is better?  What assumptions about
     our code's future audience should we hold to best help our future
     readers of our code?

     Note that I am asking a different set of questions from another common
     topic:  When to use Python constructs like list comprehensions,
     lambdas, etc., which can greatly shorten LOC, but easily become a sea
     of letters when one makes them too complex.

     TIA!
     boB Stepp
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