[Python-Dev] Examples for PEP 572

[Tim Peters]

[INADA Naoki]
> ...
> On the other hand, I understand PEP 572 allows clever code
> simplifies tedious code.  It may increase readability of non-dirty code.

The latter is the entire intent ,of course.  We can't force people to write
readable code, but I don't understand the widespread assumption that other
programmers are our enemies who have to be preemptively disarmed ;-)

Use code review to enforce readable code.  If you want a coding standard
here, use mine:  "if using an assignment expression isn't obviously better
(at least a little so), DON'T USE IT".  That's the same standard I use for
lots of things (e.g., is such-&-such better as a listcomp or as nested
loops?).  It only requires that you have excellent taste in what "better"
means ;-)

As I noted in the PEP's Appendix A, I refuse to even write code like

i = j = count = nerrors = 0

because it squashes conceptually distinct things into a single statement .
I'll always write that as

i = j = 0
count = 0
nerrors = 0

instead - or even in 4 lines if `i` and `j` aren't conceptually related.

That's how annoyingly pedantic I can be ;-)   Yet after staring at lots of
code, starting from a neutral position (why have an opinion about anything
before examination?), I became a True Believer.

I really don't know what Guido likes best about this, but for me it's the
large number of objectively small wins in `if` and `while` contexts.   They
add up.  That conclusion surprised me.  That there are occasionally bigger
wins to be had is pure gravy.

But in no case did I count "allows greater cleverness" as a win.  The
Appendix contains a few examples of "bad" uses too, where cleverness in
pursuit of brevity harms clarity.  In fact, to this day, I believe those
examples derived from abusing assignment expressions in real-life code are
more horrifying than any of the examples anyone else _contrived_ to "prove"
how bad the feature is.

I apparently have more faith that people will use the feature as intended.
Not all people, just most.  The ones who don't can be beaten into
compliance, same as with any other abused feature ;-)
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