On Sep 30, 2015, at 13:58, Piotr Duda <duda.piotr@gmail.com> wrote:
What about something like: z = x if is not None else []
For something as simple as "x", this doesn't seem much better than what we can already do: z = x if x is not None else [] For a complex expression that might be incorrect/expensive/dangerous to call multiple times, it might be useful, but I think it would read a lot better with an explicit pronoun: z = dangerous_thing(arg) if it is not None else [] In natural languages, "it" is already complex enough; adding in subject elision makes parsing even harder. I think the same would be true here. Also, explicit "it" would be usable in other situations: z = dangerous_thing(arg) if it.value() > 3 else DummyValue(3) And it gives you something to look up in the docs: help(it) can tell me how to figure out what "it" refers to, but how would I find that out with your version? Anyway, I still don't like it even with the explicit pronoun, but maybe that's just AppleScript flashbacks. :)