[Tutor] Re: Suggestions for cleaner code

[Raymond Hettinger]

> >Can I ask why 'input' is frowned upon?  I noticed that in 'Core Python
> >Programming' the method is as below, namely "int(raw_input())", but in
> >the 'Non-programmer's' tutorial, 'input()' is used.  Just curious.

It depends on who is doing the frowning.  Guido rather likes input()
and finds it helpful so that a user can input something like:
   10 * 20
or
   current_count + 1

For production code, it presents a security risk since untrusted
input is passed directly to eval().  So, your innocuous:

   f = input('how many friends do you have?')

will allow a rather unhelpful response like:

   os.unlink('/profile.sh')


Raymond Hettinger