[Python-ideas] Generator syntax hooks?

[Chris Barker]

On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 8:39 AM, Paul Moore <p.f.moore at gmail.com> wrote:


>  Also, there's a potential issue
> here - consider
>
>     [expr for var in even_numbers() if is_odd(var) while var < 100]
>
> This is an infinite loop, even though it has a finite termination
> condition (var < 100), because we only test the termination condition
> if var is odd, which it never will be.
>

why is the termination only tested if teh if clause is True? Could then not
be processed in parallel? or the while first....

so maybe better to do:

[expr for var in even_numbers() while var < 100 if is_odd(var)]

Maybe it's just me, but I would certainly expect the while to have
precedence.

I guess I think of it like this:

"if" is providing a filtering mechanism

"while" is providing a termination mechanism

 -- is there a use case anyone can think of when they would want the while
to be applied to the list AFTER filtering?

Obviously, this is a contrived example. And certainly "don't do that,
> then" is a valid response. But my instinct is that people are going to
> get this wrong - *especially* in a maintenance environment.


sure, but would there be an issue if teh while were given precedence?

Overall, I agree with Steven's point. It seems pretty obvious what the
> intention is, and while it's probably possible to construct examples
> that are somewhat unclear,
>
> 1. The mechanical rule gives an explicit meaning
> 2. People shouldn't be writing such complex comprehensions, so if the
> rule doesn't give what they expect, they can always rewrite the code
> with an explicit (and clearer) loop.
>

me too -- a direct translation to a for loop isn't necessary to understand
how it works.

-CHB


-- 

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer

Emergency Response Division
NOAA/NOS/OR&R            (206) 526-6959   voice
7600 Sand Point Way NE   (206) 526-6329   fax
Seattle, WA  98115       (206) 526-6317   main reception

Chris.Barker at noaa.gov
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/attachments/20170810/671d5703/attachment-0001.html>