Tim Peters <tim_one@email.msn.com>:
If this goes in (I'm not deadly opposed, just more opposed than in favor), I'd like to see "else" used instead of the colon (cond "?" true "else" false). The question mark is reasonably mnemonic, but a colon makes no sense here.
I have to say that I think any ternary syntax that mixes a single-character operator with a keyword would be intolerably ugly.
Now let's see whether people really want the functionality or are just addicted to C syntax <ahem>.
It's not that simple. People clearly want the functionality; we've seen ample evidence of that. Given that, I think the presumption has to be in favor of using the familiar C syntax rather than an invention that would necessarily be more obscure.
BTW, a number of other changes would be needed to the Lang Ref manual (e.g., section 2.6 (Delimeters) explicitly says that "?" isn't used in Python today, and that its appeareance outside a string literal or comment is "an unconditional error"; etc).
I'm certainly willing to fix that. -- <a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr">Eric S. Raymond</a> [The disarming of citizens] has a double effect, it palsies the hand and brutalizes the mind: a habitual disuse of physical forces totally destroys the moral [force]; and men lose at once the power of protecting themselves, and of discerning the cause of their oppression. -- Joel Barlow, "Advice to the Privileged Orders", 1792-93