Vote on PEP 308: Ternary Operator

[Dennis Reinhardt]

CCE:
> Agreed.  But I think you are throwing out the baby with the
> bathwater here.  What is useful about the terinary operator
> is that for assignments it is clear that the lhs is uniform.
>
>    z_of_useful_length =   select abs(z_of_useful_length)
>                             case < .0001: 1.0
>                             else: 1.0 + z_of_useful_length

The assignment is spread across lines 1,2,3 and the comparison is on lines
1,2.  I don't see the baby which is thrown out here.

DR:
> |    if abs(z_of_useful_length) < .0001:
> |        z_of_useful_length = 1.0
> |    else:
> |        z_of_useful_length += 1.0
> |
> | ... much more readable.

I think my example based on existing syntax is still more readable.
Existing syntax allowing for single lhs is:

def ternary(in_z):
    if abs(in_z)< .0001: return 1.0
    else: return 1.0 + in_z

z_of_useful_length = ternary(z_of_useful_length)

--

Dennis Reinhardt

DennisR at dair.com
http://www.dair.com