On Oct 13, 3:44�am, John Reid <j.r...@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk> wrote: > Mensanator wrote: > >> Nothing wrong with a having a break IMHO. > > > My opinion is that there is everything wrong with > > having a break. I don't think I have ever used one, > > I write code that doesn't depend on that crutch. > > I guess its crutch-iness is in the eye of the beholder. You seem to have > a dogmatic view about this.
No, it's just that the OP was asking whether avoiding "while True" is considered Best Practice. How can you answer such a question without sounding dogmatic? > > > > > > > > >> while not done: > > >> seems very dangerous to me as you'd have to > > >> del done > > >> before writing the same construct again. That's the sort of thing that > >> leads to errors. > > > Duh. I won't write silly code like that either. > > If I need more than one loop structure then I'll > > do something like > > > � � while not done_with_this > > > � � while not done_with_that > > This is neither clean or well scoped. > > > > > Besides, since I _always_ initialize the flag > > before entering a loop, the flag can be reused > > and doesn't have to be deleted (as long as the > > loops aren't nested). And since I don't use goto, > > there's no chance the initialization can be avoided. > > Initialising the flag is just another line of code that has to be > interpreted later. I didn't notice the initialisation in your original post. "Just another line that has to be interpreted later" is a strange comment in the context of "del done". > > > > > The best way to avoid the pitfalls of spaghetti > > code is to not write it in the first place. > > I agree. With 'break' it is obvious what the code does and there are > fewer lines to write in the first place and comprehend in the second. Do you consider Perl golf to be Best Practice? -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list