[Python-ideas] exception based conditional expression, similar to if-else conditional expression

[Jeff McAninch]

Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> Ie, your parser resolves the "dangling except" ambiguity in the
> opposite way to the conventional resolution of the "dangling else"
> ambiguity.  And what if excepts are mixed with conditional
> expressions?
>
>   x = exp0 except exc1: exp1 if exp2 else exp3 except: exp4
>
> Does the bare except bind to exp0, the if expression, or exp3?  I'm
> sure you can define rules to disambiguate.  However, I suspect that it
> will be hard to get agreement that any given set of rules is the
> appropriate way to resolve the ambiguity.
>   

Following up on my previous post, I think the general syntax would be 
something like:
    exception_expression :== nominal_value {except exception_tuple 
exception_value}* {except default_value}

Hopefully this disambiguates the issue, at least from the parser point 
of view.  Requiring an explicit tuple of exceptions (ie., requiring the 
parens around the tuple of exceptions) makes sense too, and I thought I 
had seen other discussions of requiring explicit tuples where currently 
parens could be implied.

With the definition above, I think the combinations of exception 
expressions with if-else conditional expressions is probably also 
unambiguous (though not necessarily easily read).  I haven't sat down to 
verify this mathematically yet though.

Allowing parens around the except clauses might help to make it more 
readable?
    x = float(string) (except (ValueError,) float('nan')) (except 
(SomeOtherException,) someOtherValue)
Okay, maybe not?

(BTW: thanks for the cool new verb -- disambiguate -- though my friends 
and family may not be so happy when I start using it at every opportunity!)

-- 
==========================
Jeffrey E. McAninch, PhD
Physicist, X-2-IFD
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Phone: 505-667-0374
Email: mcaninch at lanl.gov
==========================