A technique from a chatbot

[Thomas Passin]

On 4/2/2024 1:47 PM, Piergiorgio Sartor via Python-list wrote:
> On 02/04/2024 19.18, Stefan Ram wrote:
>>    Some people can't believe it when I say that chatbots improve
>>    my programming productivity. So, here's a technique I learned
>>    from a chatbot!
>>    It is a structured "break". "Break" still is a kind of jump,
>>    you know?
>>    So, what's a function to return the first word beginning with
>>    an "e" in a given list, like for example
>> [ 'delta', 'epsilon', 'zeta', 'eta', 'theta' ]
>>
>>    ? Well it's
>> def first_word_beginning_with_e( list_ ):
>>      for word in list_:
>>          if word[ 0 ]== 'e': return word
>>
>>    . "return" still can be considered a kind of "goto" statement.
>>    It can lead to errors:
>>
>> def first_word_beginning_with_e( list_ ):
>>      for word in list_:
>>          if word[ 0 ]== 'e': return word
>>      something_to_be_done_at_the_end_of_this_function()
>>    The call sometimes will not be executed here!
>>    So, "return" is similar to "break" in that regard.
>>    But in Python we can write:
>> def first_word_beginning_with_e( list_ ):
>>      return next( ( word for word in list_ if word[ 0 ]== 'e' ), None )
> 
> Doesn't look a smart advice.
> 
>>    . No jumps anymore, yet the loop is aborted on the first hit

It's worse than "not a smart advice". This code constructs an 
unnecessary tuple, then picks out its first element and returns that. 
The something_to_be_done() function may or may not be called.  And it's 
harder to read and understand than necessary.  Compare, for example, 
with this version:

def first_word_beginning_with_e(target, wordlist):
     result = ''
     for w in wordlist:
         if w.startswith(target):
             res = w
             break
     do_something_else()
     return result

If do_something_else() is supposed to fire only if the target is not 
found, then this slight modification will do:

def first_word_beginning_with_e(target, wordlist):
     result = ''
     for w in wordlist:
         if w.startswith(target):
             res = w
             break
     else:
         do_something_else()
     return result

[Using the "target" argument instead of "target[0]" will let you match 
an initial string instead of just a the first character].

> First of all, I fail to understand why there
> should be no jumps any more.
> It depends on how "return" and "if" are handled,
> I guess, in different context.
> Maybe they're just "masked".
> In any case, the "compiler" should have just
> done the same.
> 
>>    (if I guess correctly how its working).
> 
> Second, it is difficult to read, which is bad.
> The "guess" above is just evidence of that.
> 
> My personal opinion about these "chatbots", is
> that, while they might deliver clever solutions,
> they are not explaining *why* these solutions
> should be considered "clever".
> Which is the most important thing (the solution
> itself is _not_).
> 
> bye,
>