[Tutor] Are you allowed to shoot camels? [kinda OT]

[Jeff Shannon]

Smith, Jeff wrote:

> IMHO, if/elif/else statements are far more abused than either switch or
> ternary but I certainly wouldn't argue they should be removed from the
> language.

IMHO, if it's true that if/elif/else statements are more abused than 
ternaries, then it's only because they're *used* far more often than 
ternaries.  I'd say that the percentage of uses which could count as 
abuse is *far* higher for ternary than for if/elif/else.

And I avoid (and recommend against) Python's "a and b or c" trick for 
similar reasons -- it *is* a trick.  A 'real' ternary operator is 
confusing enough; this trick is more readable (words instead of opaque 
symbols) but more difficult to write correctly given the constraints 
on 'a'...

Maybe I'm just weird, but I just don't find so much benefit to putting 
*everything* in-line.  Occassionally it improves readability, but more 
often it obscures and obfuscates.

Jeff Shannon
Technician/Programmer
Credit International