To 'with' or not to 'with': how is the question ?

[Daniel Dittmar]

Writing a 'for' when you don't have a loop seems really confusing (just
because it executes the same dosn't mean it it easily recognized as
such).

Personally, I can live without a 'with', knowing Python's distaste for
syntactic sugar. But Python 1.6 alredy introduces some (the new call
syntax 'method (args, ..., *tuple, **dict) ), which I applaud in
principle and dislike in detail (because it uses operator when
seperators would be more appropriate), so I though I just chime in. The
reason being that if a 'with' would be adopted, then the Visual Basic
variant would be much better than the Pascal variant.

Daniel



Alex Martelli wrote:
> 
> "Daniel Dittmar" <daniel at dittmar.net> wrote in message
> news:39B17A79.214FD56B at dittmar.net...
>     [snip]
> > def alternativeThree ():
> >     with sys.stdout:
> >         .write (...)
> >         .write (...)
> >         .write (...)
> 
> def alternativePython():
>     for __ in [sys.stdout]:
>         __.write(...)
>         __.write(...)
>         __.write(...)
> 
> I don't think we need a "syntax revolution" to let you
> achieve basically the same structure as you can do today.
> 
> Maybe "with foo:" would be more direct than the
> "for __ in [foo]:" syntax, but the latter has the Pythonic
> advantage of letting you name the placeholder variable;
> __ is OK, but others may like a style where the name
> for the placeholder is less 'transparent', more explicit:
> 
>     for out in [sys.stdout]:
>         out.write(...)
>         out.write(...)
>         out.write(...)
> 
> And of course the ability to specify the placeholder names
> lets you nest these with-equivalents.
> 
> Implied/unexpressed variablenames are unPythonic.  E.g.,
> most OO languages let you say "foo" within a method to
> mean, implicitly, "the foo of this object I'm handling"; in
> Python, "explicit is better than implicit", so you explicitly
> say self.foo instead -- and it is good.  Reduces confusion,
> etc.  So, if such explicit placeholders as 'self' are OK, and
> one of Python's hallmarks, why not render the 'with' in a
> very similar vein?  All that's left may be a vague desire for
> smoother syntax-sugar, maybe
>     with sys.stdout as __:
> to replace
>     for __ in [sys.stdout]:
> but I, personally, doubt the usage frequency of 'with' is
> sufficient to warrant a special-purpose subclassing of the
> more general & useful for-syntax.
> 
> Alex