(PEP-308) Python's Conditional Selection Operators

[Stephen Horne]

On Fri, 14 Feb 2003 18:34:32 -0800, Erik Max Francis <max at alcyone.com>
wrote:

>You say "standard versions" but there is no such thing in the realm of
>computer science.  Python's and/or operators behave just like Lisp's,
>for example, and Lisp has been around a very long time.

But lisp has never been a defining standard for all programming
languages. It is quirky and somewhat different from anything in
programming that could be called a standard. For example, it is often
referred to as a functional language because it supports functions as
first class objects even though it is clearly an imperative language
in most ways with side effects all over the place - so it doesn't even
fit with the standard expectations of a single class of programming
language.

As for the syntax, it is best compared with forth and miranda - all
three are obsessed with one syntactic construct (forth has postfix
operators, miranda has prefix operators, lisp has Lots of
Infuriatingly Stupid Paretheses. Important, yes. Powerful, yes.
Standard (as in conventional), no.

The standard for boolean logic operators (even if it is just a de
facto standard) is that they operate on boolean parameters and return
boolean results. There are exceptions, and some have been around a
long time, but age in itself does not make something standard.

-- 
steve at ninereeds dot fsnet dot co dot uk