[Python-Dev] Switch statement

[Guido van Rossum]

On 6/25/06, Greg Ewing <greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> Guido van Rossum wrote:
> > I'm currently leaning
> > towards making static expressions outside a function illegal and limit
> > switches outside a function to compile-time-constant expressions.
>
> I'm not sure I like the idea of having things that
> are illegal outside a function, because it can be a
> nuisance for code refactoring.
>
> I'd be happy if case worked at the top level, but
> wasn't any faster than if-elses. That wouldn't be
> so bad -- top-level code is already slower due to
> global variable accesses.
>
> Also I don't care what happens if you change the
> case values of a top-level case. It's undefined
> behaviour anyway.

Fair enough. I wasn't leaning very strongly anyway. :-)

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