explicit is better, BUT... (was Re: PEP 285: Adding a bool type)

[Tim Peters]

[Alex Martelli]
> ...
> Now, what we need is a release 1.0.1 of this.py that, right below
> "explicit is better than implicit", adds a "but-clause" of (I suggest)
> "but superfluous redundancy and repetitive boilerplate aren't" (self-
> referential, of course:-).  Note this also helps ward against
> "if bool(x)==True:" &c...

Well, "The Zen of Python" is somebody else's name for this thing.  As
originally posted, they were the "20 Pythonic Theses".  They never need
revision, because I only gave 19 -- the 20th (or perhaps the first -- they
weren't numbered) was left open for Guido to fill in.  The admonition to
explicitness is indeed taken to extremes by those still struggling to
uncover their Pythonic Nature.

Raymond Smullyan wrote a great little story about a world where only a few
knew how to laugh.  Others strove to imitate the body movements and
breathing patterns of the laughers, and somberly committed entire Marx
Brothers movies to memory.  Having to be explicit about the limitations of
explicitness amounts to the same thing <wink>.