[Python-Dev] Proposal - KeyboardInterrupt should inherit directly from Exception

[Skip Montanaro]

>>>>> "Greg" == Greg Ward <gward@python.net> writes:

    Skip> That way, the standard catch all except clause can be
    Skip> 
    Skip> try:
    Skip>     fragile code
    Skip> except StandardError:
    Skip>     recover

    Greg> So "fragile code" would be the main loop of a GUI or server,
    Greg> or an eval or exec of user-supplied code (eg. a config file
    Greg> that happens to be Python source) -- that sort of thing?

That's precisely the context this arose in here in Vienna.  I just
stole Andrew's example from c.l.py because it was easier to paste that
than to type my own.

    Greg> Hmmm... does anyone else habitually write

    Greg>   if __name__ == "__main__":
    Greg>       try:
    Greg>           main()
    Greg>       except KeyboardInterrupt:
    Greg>           sys.exit("interrupted")

This suggests one other enhancement to me.  Just as raising SystemExit
doesn't generate a traceback, perhaps the default handling of
KeyboardInterrupt could be configurable so I could set (for example):

    sys.gen_kbi_traceback = 0
    sys.gen_kbi_message = 0

to suppress traceback and/or message output without having to do
explicitly catch it.  The default for both would be 1 to remain
compatible with current behavior.  If you caught the exception, these
would have no effect.

Skip