[Python-Dev] RE: PEP-317

[Steven Taschuk]

Quoth Aahz:
  [...]
>                 raise Found()
> except Found:
  [...]
> I find that extra set of parentheses unnecessary and ugly.  It implies a
> callable where it's not really being used that way, [...]

In
    raise Found
Found *is* being used as a callable under the hood; an instance of
Found is created implicitly.  You just happen not to care about
that instance.

> [...] particularly in the
> asymmetry between the ``raise`` and the ``except``.  [...]

'raise' and 'except' *are* asymmetrical; instances are raised, but
they are caught by class.  As the PEP says, the current syntactic
symmetry is misleading in general (though, I admit, not especially
so in your code sample).

> [...] If this change goes
> through, I might start doing
> 
> class Found(Exception):
>     pass
> Found = Found()

That you think this would work supports my claim that the present
syntax is misleading.  <wink>

-- 
Steven Taschuk                            staschuk@telusplanet.net
Every public frenzy produces legislation purporting to address it.
                                                  (Kinsley's Law)