Is except: ... pass bad style?

[Aahz]

In article <pan.2004.09.09.16.26.16.985806 at python.net>,
marduk  <marduk at python.net> wrote:
>
>I commonly use code like this
>
>try:
>    # call optional method
>    myobj.method()
>except AttributeError:
>    # no biggie
>    pass
>
>Occasionally I use pylint, which is a good tool, but in the above
>snippet pylint will complain that 'Except doesn't do anything'.  True,
>but is that bad style?  I know there are other ways of doing it, but
>of all the other "obvious" ones, this appears the most straight
>forward.
>
>Should I ignore pylint or is there a more Pythonic way to do this?

Neither.  It's a perfectly good Pythonic idiom, but it's also likely to
be programmer error (mocking up the try/except structure and forgetting
to fill in the blanks later).  So you should ignore pylint when it's
code you're familiar with (and have already double-checked your
intentions), but you should pay attention to pylint when you're writing
new code and checking it.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little
statesmen and philosophers and divines."  --Ralph Waldo Emerson