[Python-Dev] Re: accumulator display syntax
Nick Coghlan
ncoghlan at iinet.net.au
Wed Oct 22 09:02:52 EDT 2003
Alex Martelli strung bits together to say:
> I don't think we should encourage that sort of thing with the "implicit
> assignment" in accumulation.
>
> So, if it's an accumulation syntax we're going for, I'd much rather find
> ways to express whether we want [a] no assignment at all (as e.g for
> union_update), [b] plain assignment, [c] augmented assignment such
> as += or whatever. Sorry, no good idea comes to my mind now, but
> I _do_ think we'd want all three possibilities...
I had a similar thought about 5 minutes after turning my computer off last
night. The alternative I came up with was:
y = (from result = 0.0 do result += x**2 for x in values if x > 0)
The two extra clauses (from & do) are pretty much unavoidable if we want to be
able to express both the starting point, and the method of accumulation. And
hopefully those clauses would be enough to disambiguate this from the new syntax
for generator expressions.
The 'from' clause would allow a single plain assignment statement. It names the
accumulation variable, and also gives it an initial value (if you don't want an
initial value, an explicit assignment to None should suffice)
The 'do' clause would allow single plain or augmented assignment statements, as
well as allowing any expression.
'from' is already a keyword (thanks to 'from ... import ...') and it might be
possible to avoid making 'do' a keyword (in the same way that 'as' is not a
keyword despite its use in 'from ... import ... as ...')
(And I'll add my vote to pointing out that generator expressions don't magically
eliminate the use of the reduce function or accumulation loops any more than
list comprehensions did. We still need the ability to express the starting value
and the accumulation method).
Cheers,
Nick.
P.S. I'm heading off to Canberra early tomorrow morning, so I won't be catching
up on this discussion until the weekend.
--
Nick Coghlan | Brisbane, Australia
ICQ#: 68854767 | ncoghlan at email.com
Mobile: 0409 573 268 | http://www.talkinboutstuff.net
"Let go your prejudices,
lest they limit your thoughts and actions."
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