[Python-Dev] For review: PEP 285: Adding a bool type

[Guido van Rossum]

> I didn't want to jump on the bandwagon, but...
> 
> It occurs to me that one potential benefit of having a
> boolean type is to avoid mistakes like this:
> 
> test = value & MASK
> if test == True:
>     DoSomething()
> 
> Sure, "if bool(test) == True:" does the right thing, but
> so does "if test:". You wouldn't have made the mistake
> in the first place if you'd thought of that. :-)
> 
> I think at least add something like this should be added
> to the description in the PEP:
> 
>     def __cmp__(self,other):
>         return int.__cmp__(self,bool(other))

Absolutely not.  I want True == 2 to be False.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)