On Saturday, 10 October 2009 22:15:21 kj wrote: > I'm coaching a group of biologists on basic Python scripting. One > of my charges mentioned that he had come across the advice never > to use loops beginning with "while True". Of course, that's one > way to start an infinite loop, but this seems hardly a sufficient > reason to avoid the construct altogether, as long as one includes > an exit that is always reached. (Actually, come to think of it, > there are many situations in which a bona fide infinite loops > (typically within a try: block) is the required construct, e.g. > when implementing an event loop.) > > I use "while True"-loops often, and intend to continue doing this > "while True", but I'm curious to know: how widespread is the > injunction against such loops? Has it reached the status of "best > practice"?
Others have given various valid answers, but I have not seen this one: It is often necessary, in long running applications, to set up loops that you would really like to run until the end of time. - the equivalent of a "serve forever" construct. Then while True is the obvious way to spell it. - Hendrik -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list