The rap against "while True:" loops

[inhahe]

On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 1:55 PM, inhahe <inhahe at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 6:34 PM, Mensanator <mensanator at aol.com> wrote:
>
>> On Oct 10, 5:02�pm, kj <no.em... at please.post> wrote:
>> > In <01ccc46d-5ea9-4dfe-ba22-699c6b859... at v36g2000yqv.googlegroups.com>
>> Mensanator <mensana... at aol.com> writes:
>> >
>> > In fact, if it were up to me, I would have made the fundamental
>> > looping construct something like
>> >
>> > repeat:
>> > � � � ...
>> > � � � if whatever():
>> > � � � � � �break
>> > � � � ...
>>
>> So, the second set of '...' doesn't get executed.
>>
>> When I use
>>
>> while not done:
>>    ...
>>    if n==1: done = True
>>    ...
>>
>> the loop will actually complete (which is what
>> I want) instead of aborting, like yours does.
>> I just don't want the loop to execute again.
>>
>>
> Of course, this is why you would use "while not done" instead of "while
> True" or "repeat" in that situation, so i'm not sure what your contention
> is.
>
>
>> Now, if I did a break before writing to the file,
>> I would have to do all kinds of clean-up code
>> outside the loop, code that would be run only
>> if the exit were abnormal.
>>
>>
> This is why I propose an "until" keyword.
>
> until n == 1:
>   ...
>
> i know some people don't like to add keywords "unnecessarily," but i really
> like to be able to express programs in a way that reflects what we actually
> mean, when there's a simple way this could be provided and it's a common use
> case.
>
> i recognize the problem with my solution is that "n" might not even be
> defined until somewhere in the loop after "until n == 1" is evaluated.  this
> makes it a little weird, but it's not strictly a problem since the
> interpreter doesn't actually have to evaluate "n == 1" until the tail end of
> the loop.
>
>
> >
>> > and made all the other looping constructs as syntatic sugar for
>> > this one.
>>
>> Luckily, it's not up to you.
>>
>
> condescending and manipulative, as it merely begs the question of luckily
> for whom -- him, or you
>
>
>> >
>> > kj
>>
>> --
>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>>
>
>
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