[Python-Dev] Trinary Operators

[Guido van Rossum]

> Yes!  My only experience with Algol 68 was in an undergrad programming
> language survey course about 10 years ago, and I remember thinking at
> the time that they really got it right back in '68.

ABC was designed by some folks who also worked on Algol 68.  I assure
you that some of the differences between Algol 68 and ABC came from
bitter experience with the former.

> I also have a dim recollection of pestering Guido about the
> statement/expression divide once, and he insisted that it was a
> feature.  I respectfully disagree; I think we're all grown-ups here and
> we can decide between ourselves when an expression is really a
> statement.  This is one thing that I think C got right (although
> "if (x = ...)" is an abomination that should, at the very least,
> generate a stern warning).

Huh?  Apart from the one thing you frown upon here, Python's
distinction between statements and expressions is pretty much the same
as that in C!

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