Guido van Rossum wrote: > On 4/5/07, Raymond Hettinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> Guido van Rossum wrote: >>>> Isn't this violating the rule that a try/except should only enclose >>>> the smallest expression where the exception is expected? >>> Yeah, and I keep finding myself wanting to hyperlink to that "rule" in >>> the official docs, but it only seems to be written down in developer's >>> heads. Can we get that into the Language Ref somewhere? Maybe on the >>> http://docs.python.org/ref/try.html page? >> I'll add a snippet to the tutorial with advice on try/except. >> >> I don't think it should go in the main documentation because it is >> really more of a suggestion or technique than an actual rule. >> Also, there are plenty of other situations where the "rule" doesn't apply. > > I see a lot of code written by Googlers who are not (yet) experienced > Python users. Overly wide try/except clauses are a common mistake, and > it is nearly always easy to apply this rule. I would argue, as a style > issue, for making this rule the norm, and require deviations to be > thought through very carefully. > > This rule has no place in a pure language *reference* manual. But it > certainly deserves mention in any form of more practical > documentation, be it a tutorial or a more advanced programming manual. > PEP 8 would (also? I don't see this being relevant to the reference manual, but that's not a biggie) seem a logical place for this information to go, since it deals with try-except. I'd suggest something along the lines of:
A frequent beginner's error is to make the scope of a try clause too broad, covering a larger span of code that necessary so that the except clause is triggered by unanticipated exceptions. Try to ensure that a try clause applies to the fewest possible statements to avoid these issues. regards Steve -- Steve Holden +44 150 684 7255 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com Skype: holdenweb http://del.icio.us/steve.holden Recent Ramblings http://holdenweb.blogspot.com _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
