Terry Reedy, 20.07.2010 21:49:
I did not comment then because I thought the idea of cluttering python with augmented local namespace blocks, with no functional gain, was rejected and dead, and hence unnecessary of comment. -10 For me, the idea would come close to destroying (what remains of) the simplicity that makes Python relatively easy to learn. It seems to be associated with the (to me, cracked) idea that names are pollution.
Actually, it's about *giving* names to subexpressions, that's quite the opposite.
I agree with Jack Diederich:
I think the "trick" to making it readable is putting the assignment first.
par_pos = decl.find('(') vtype = decl[par_pos+1:FindMatching(par_pos, decl)].strip()
versus:
vtype = decl[par_pos+1:FindMatching(par_pos, decl)].strip() where par_pos=decl.find('(')
The real horror would come with multiple assignments with multiple and nested where or whatever clauses.
I agree that the placement *behind* the expression itself *can* be suboptimal, but then, we also have conditional expressions, where it's good to know when to use them and when they get too long to be readable. The same applies here.
However, I take your point that this is nothing that really makes anything simpler or that potentially opens new use cases (like the 'with' statement did, for example). It's a plain convenience syntax and as such not really worth defending over potential draw-backs.
Stefan