On Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 9:19 PM Rob Cliffe via Python-ideas > The upholders of the status quo regularly provide gallant explanations of > why "else" is perfectly natural, even intuitive. > The fact is, it isn't. If it were, it wouldn't **need** to be repeatedly > explained by gurus to lesser mortals. >
I have used Python for 22 years, and I still cannot remember what else does in a loop for more than a few minutes at a time. It's easy to remember "it has something to do with whether there was a break." But neither direction in that choice yet feels obvious to me. I've read all the posts in this thread. I watched Raymond's explanation from a talk a few years ago. I've read Guido's explanation. I've read Knuth. I have a graduate degree in humanities and am a professional writer. I'm a native English speaker. It's still not intuitive to me. In my own code I just avoid the construct. I reckon I'm +1 on "some better spelling" ... although I manage fine without using it. I rarely see it in the wild, probably because it is confusing. I can't think of any other area of Python that needs to be defended so > regularly and so vociferously, nor that very experienced Python programmers > confess they find confusing. Swelp me, someone in this very thread (Barry) > misunderstood it[1]. And suggesting that those of us who don't find it > clear lack skill in English is just plain insulting. > > YMMV, but the only way I can grok it when I see it is to mentally > translate "else" to "if no break". This is mental effort that would be > spared or at least diminished if it were spelt in a more obvious way in the > first place. >
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