[Python-Dev] PEP 380 (yield from a subgenerator) comments

[Greg Ewing]

Guido van Rossum wrote:

> That's all good. I just don't think that a presentation in terms of
> code in-lining is a good idea.

I was trying to describe it in a way that would give
some insight into *why* the various aspects of the
formal definition are the way they are. The inlining
concept seemed like an elegant way of doing that.

However, I've since realized that it's not quite as
unambiguous as I thought it was when a return value
is involved. I'll see if I can find another approach.

> some languages *do* work that way (e.g. macro languages and Algol-60),

Algol-60 doesn't actually work that way, they just used
a similar trick to define certain aspects of the
semantics (although in that case I agree there were
better ways they could have defined it).

I'm asking you to use a different word, since "inlining" to
> me has pretty strong connotations of textual substitution.

That's not what it usually means, as far as I can see.
When you declare a function 'inline' in C, you're not
asking for a blind textual substitution. Rather, you're
asking the compiler to generate whatever code is needed
to get the same effect as an actual call.

-- 
Greg