On 2/27/2014 7:46 PM, Chris Angelico wrote:
On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 1:12 PM, Glenn Linderman <v+pyt...@g.nevcal.com> wrote:
Yes. But the point is really the location of the (), sorry if my "nice
extension" comment is throwing you off that track.
Ah! I see.
We touched on this syntax on -ideas, but at the time, the proposed
syntax didn't have parens around the outside. Either location will
solve most of the same problems (like precedence/associativity versus
multiple except clauses), but shrinking down to just the exception
list and default value makes it look very different. It looks like
what's inside should be an expression, which it isn't. What's the
advantage of this form? What's its key advantage over the
parens-around-the-whole-thing form?
Key advantage to me is that if a function call or other expression may
produce multiple exceptions, the syntax doesn't require repeating the
"except" over and over. By not repeating the except over and over,
there is less ambiguity about what expression the Exception-lists apply
to, when there is more than one Exception list in the expression.
Whereas the current PEP syntax has ambiguity regarding how to interpret
a-expr except except-list-b: b-expr except except-list-c: c-expr (does
the 2nd except apply to a-expr or b-expr?), without parentheses, and, as
far as I am concerned, even with the parentheses, this syntax makes it
very clear that each of the Exception-lists apply to a-expr.
Key advantage to others may be that because the : is within the () [and
the leading ( is quite nearby, making it obvious], it is less likely to
be considered a statement boundary, and more easily explained as a
special type of list syntax... not _really_ a list, because it is really
code to be executed somewhat sequentially rather than data, and lists
don't have : ... and not _really_ a dict constant, which does have :,
because the Exception is not _really_ a key, but the syntax can draw on
analogies with the dict constant syntax which will help people remember
it, and even sort of understand that there is a pair-wise relationship
between the Exception-list and the expression after the :, without
repeating the except over and over.
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