python3: 'where' keyword

[Nick Coghlan]

Andrey Tatarinov wrote:
> Hi.
> 
> It would be great to be able to reverse usage/definition parts in 
> haskell-way with "where" keyword. Since Python 3 would miss lambda, that 
> would be extremly useful for creating readable sources.
> 
> Usage could be something like:
> 
>  >>> res = [ f(i) for i in objects ] where:
>  >>>     def f(x):
>  >>>         #do something

Hmm, this is actually a really interesting idea. Avoiding accidental namespace 
conflicts is certainly one of the advantages of using lambdas.

This idea has the virtue of being able to do the same thing, but have full 
access to Python's function syntax and assignment statements in the 'expression 
local' suite.

In fact, any subexpressions in a complicated expression can be extracted and 
named for clarity without fear of screwing up the containing namespace, which 
would be an enormous boon for software maintainers.

It also allows the necessary but uninteresting setup for an expression to be 
moved "out of the way", bringing the expression that does the real work to 
prominence.

 From the interpreter's point of view, the meaning would probably be something like:

namespace = locals()
exec where_suite in globals(), namespace
exec statement in globals(), namespace
res = namespace["res"]
del namespace

Making the 'where' clause part of the grammar for the assignment statement 
should be enough to make the above example parseable, too.

The clause might actually make sense for all of the simple statement forms in 
the grammar which contain an expression:
   expression statement
   assignment statement
   augmented assignment statement
   del statement
   print statement
   return statement
   yield statement
   raise statement
   exec statement

The clause really isn't appropriate for break, continue, import or global 
statements, as they don't contain any expressions :)

For compound statements, a where clause probably isn't appropriate, as it would 
be rather unclear what the where clause applied to.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at email.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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