[Python-Dev] PEP 463: Exception-catching expressions

[Greg Ewing]

Nick Coghlan wrote:
> On 21 February 2014 13:15, Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>>Generator expressions require parentheses, unless they would be
>>strictly redundant.  Ambiguities with except expressions could be
>>resolved in the same way, forcing nested except-in-except trees to be
>>correctly parenthesized 
> 
> I'd like to make the case that the PEP should adopt this as its
> default position.

I generally agree, but I'd like to point out that this
doesn't necessarily mean making the parenthesizing rules as
strict as they are for generator expressions.

The starting point for genexps is that the parens are part of
the syntax, the same way that square brackets are part of
the syntax of a list comprehension; we only allow them to
be omitted in very special circumstances.

On the other hand, I don't think there's any harm in allowing
an except expression to stand on its own when there is no
risk of ambiguity, e.g.

    foo = things[i] except IndexError: None

should be allowed, just as we allow

    x = a if b else c

and don't require

    x = (a if b else c)

-- 
Greg