[Python-ideas] logics (was:thoughts on generator.throw())

[spir]

Le Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:10:52 -0400,
Gerald Britton <gerald.britton at gmail.com> s'exprima ainsi:

> *Then* I wondered why "raise" is a keyword and not a
> function.  If it were a function you could use it easily in places
> where today you cannot:
> 
>      if 'foo' == 'bar' or raise(FooBar):  # only proceed if 'foo'
> equals 'bar' otherwise raise FooBar exception
> 
> is invalid syntax because raise is not a function.

I'm very happy this is invalid syntax :-)
I consider this kind of practice conceptual distortion. More precisely: an abuse of both (!) flow control and logical operator semantics. It reminds me of joyful (hum!) times with C routines written by "clever" people.

Denis

PS

I would go much farther that python about logical types and operators.

Lazy evaluation is ok, because the alternative is not simpler:
   if n != 0 and 1/n > threshold: 

But I'm not happy at all with the following:
   >>> (3==3) + 1
   2
   >>> 1 or True
   1

I think logical operators (and or not) should accept only logical value. And logical values should not operate with numbers. 
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