On Dec 25, 2010, at 2:59 AM, Stefan Behnel wrote:
> Hrvoje Niksic, 24.12.2010 09:45:
>> On 12/23/2010 10:03 PM, Laurens Van Houtven wrote:
>>> On Thu, Dec 23, 2010 at 9:51 PM, Georg Brandl wrote:
>>>> Yes and no -- there may not be an ambiguity to the parser, but still to
>>>> the human. Except if you disallow the syntax in any case, requiring
>>>> people to write
>>>>
>>>> nonlocal x = (3, y)
>>>>
>>>> which is then again inconsistent with ordinary assignment statements.
>>>
>>> Right -- but (and hence the confusion) I was arguing for not mixing
>>> global/nonlocal with assignment at all, and instead having nonlocal
>>> and global only take one or more names. That would (obviously) remove
>>> any such ambiguity ;-)
>>
>> I would like to offer the opposing viewpoint: nonlocal x = value is a
>> useful shortcut because nonlocal is used in closure callbacks where
>> brevity matters.
>
> I doubt that it really matters so much that one line more kills readability.
> It's still a relatively rare use case after all.
>
>
>> The reason nonlocal is introduced is to change the
>> variable, so it makes sense that the two can be done in the same line of
>> code.
FWIW, I'm entirely opposed to doing an assignment in a nonlocal definition.
* It is easily mis-parsed by human (as shown by Georg's examples).
* It looks very much like an initialization of a local variable in many
languages,
but it is not -- the variable has already been initialized in another scope.
* It is not clear how to extend it to multiple variables (which we already
allow).
* It is entirely unnecessary. Just add a real assignment on the following line:
local x
x = 3, y
* We've had global declarations for a very long time and never needed
(or wanted) an assignment for it:
global x = 3, y
* The purported use case is rare (at best). Special cases aren't worth
breaking the rules.
And the purported goal (saving one line) isn't much of a payoff.
* The language moratorium is ending but the aversion to non-essential
micro-syntax changes persists.
* And, Georg doesn't like it :-)
Raymond
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