[Python-Dev] PEP 572: Assignment Expressions

[Tim Peters]

[Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net>]
> ...
> Having to break things out over multiple lines is a fact of life, if
> only for readability when implementing (and maintaining!) non-trivial
> processing routines. It's a good thing to be used to it, and to learn to
> choose good names for intermediate variables.

Well, the last part is overselling:  by its very nature, a binding
expression does not relieve the programmer one whit from needing to
pick good names.  The name is part of the binding expression.  The
sheer number of names needed is the same with or without binding
expressions, although the latter allow for less repetitive typing (&
reading) of those names.

For the rest, _needing_ to split a simple bind-and-test across two
lines doesn't really build character,  or have any other virtue
(besides familiarity to old-time Python programmers) I can see.
Neither does falling into indentation hell have any virtue in the
rarer cases where binding expressions really shine.  Simple things
_should_ be simple to do; indeed, when they are, that's an incentive
to keep things simple.

There will still be plenty of code where splitting multiple bindings
across multiple lines is obviously better.