New syntax for blocks

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:00:09 -0800, r wrote:

> I think what has escaped everyone (including myself until my second
> post) is the fact that what really needs to happen 

Why?


> is for variable
> *assignments* to return a boolean to any "statements" that evaluate the
> assignment -- like in an "if" or "elif" construct.

I don't even understand what that means.


> The current "with"
> statement cannot replace that action and was never meant for such
> things.
> 
> if range(0) as var:
>    #python will never execute even one line 
>    #in this block because bool(var) == None


No, that's impossible. bool() always returns True or False, not None.


>    #also since bool(var) equals None, the 

Incorrect.

>>> True == None
False
>>> False == None
False



>    #variable "var" will never be created!

That will cause no end of trouble.


if range(N) as var:
    do_something_with_var()
if var:
    print "Oops, this blows up if N <= 0"

Conditional assignments are a terrible idea.



> elif range(10) as var:
>    #this block will execute and the variable "var" 
>    #will be added to appropriate namespace containing 
>    #a list of 10 ints
> 
> var = 100 #var is still available in this namespace!
> 
> 
> Very clean, very elegant solution to a messy problem that pops up in
> python code quite often. 


You haven't actually explained what the messy problem is.


var = range(N)
if var:
    ...

is not a messy problem. It's perfectly reasonable. If you need to do two 
things with a value, you assign it to a name first:

var = range(N)
p = var.index(5)
var.append(42)


x = func(10)
y = x + 1
z = x*2


x = func(10)
if x:
    y = x + 1


Why is the third example, with an if... test, so special that it needs 
special syntax to make it a two-liner?


Would you suggest we can write this?


# instead of var = range(N)
p = range(N).index(5) as var  # var might be range(N), or undefined.
var.append(42)



> It not only saves one distracting line of code
> per usage but makes the code more readable.

What distracting line of code?





-- 
Steven