[Python-Dev] Re: PEP 285: Adding a bool type

[Christian Tanzer]

> > Nice tease. But Guido's hammer with regard to future strictification
> > of bool is exactly what makes me uneasy.
>
> Can you elaborate that?  I thought I made it pretty clear I didn't
> want to strictify bool (though I did open up the question as to
> whether other people want that).  Is that what you call a hammer?

You made it clear enough.

There are two things making me uneasy though:

- A lot of people instantly started complaining about the new bools
  being not strict enough. Over time, all that clamour might change your
  POV.

- I don't really understand why you proposed this PEP in the first
  place.

  For me, Python's (old) way of handling boolean conditions is one of
  its great strengths. This wasn't always the case. When I started
  using Python, I was slightly put off by the lack of a boolean data
  type. But quite quickly I learned to appreciate Python's way of
  dealing with this issue.

  All of that was implicit knowledge, though. It took Laura
  Creighton's well written post to make it explicit for me (thank
  you, Laura).

After reading Alex Martelli's and Laura's arguments, I'm convinced
that Python would be better off without this PEP and change to -1.

Glad-that-I'm-not-a-language-designer-ly yr's,
Christian

-- 
Christian Tanzer                                         tanzer at swing.co.at
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