[Python-ideas] Allow accessing return value inside finally clause

[alex23]

On 26 Dec, 10:44, Ram Rachum <r... at rachum.com> wrote:
> I don't think that this makes Python less clear;

How can you possibly say this?

You've changed the `finally` clause from _guaranteed_ execution to
something utterly inconsistent. In fact, finally blocks would need to
have _more_ code to guard against all of the different execution
models you're proposing here. I'm not sure why you think forcing me to
write more & less obvious code in a finally block is a better trade
off than you making clear, explicit use of decorators.

Ambiguity does not equate to clarity. Less typing doesn't either.
Creating small re-usable pieces of code that do the "hard work" for
you, however, _is a lot more clear_.

> I think it's just another
> minor feature that might be useful for some people, and for people who
> don't, it won't matter. How many people use the `for..else` feature, for
> example? Very, very few people do. I've used it only several times. But
> it's still part of Python because it helps in a few rare cases, so that
> makes it worth it *despite* the fact that it might confuse a newbie.

The behaviour of `for..else` doesn't change based on arbitrary
conditions, whereas what you propose is that the finally blocks
behaviour is _fundamentally_ different depending on whether the try
block is fully executed or not, whether an exception is raised or not.
This is absolutely not the same thing, and trying to pass this concern
off as "confusing to newbies" is rather disingenuous. The behaviour
would be _confusing to everybody_.

This is not a valid cost to save you from having to type a few more
keystrokes to decorate the return value.