[Python-ideas] Assignments in list/generator expressions

[Nick Coghlan]

On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 10:10 AM, Greg Ewing
<greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> The SQL usage is a special case of the more general way it's
> used in mathematics. I don't think database programmers can
> expect to hijack the term and force everyone else to follow
> their own particular interpretation of it.

The database programmers aren't forcing anyone to do anything. While I
don't have formal survey data to back it up, I'm reasonably confident
in stating that if you grab a random Python programmer and ask them
how they understand the term "where clause", it'll be something like:
- mostly blank looks
- many responses along the lines of the way SQL uses it
- a vanishingly small minority that are consciously aware of the
formal mathematical usage (and the way it relates to English usage of
the word)

Programming may have its origins in computer science, which in turn
has its origins in mathematics, but my personal experience is that
very few day-to-day programmers have actually had sufficient exposure
to formal mathematical terminology for it to come to mind before the
SQL use case.

Now, that personal experience is biased towards an engineering
environment, but I'd consider that more representative of the wider
industry than a university environment.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia