On 09/18/2010 07:38 PM, Seebs wrote:
On 2010-09-18, AK<andrei....@gmail.com> wrote:
On 09/18/2010 06:56 PM, Seebs wrote:
Basically, I can handle
do x if y
pretty well, but
do x if y else z
always breaks my parser.
So in English, I might say "I'll go to the store if I have time", but
I'd rarely use "I'll go to the store if I have time, otherwise I'll send
the house elf"; instead, I'd say "If I have time, I'll go to the store,
otherwise I'll send the house elf."
I actually find the shorter version slightly more readable than full
version. I think in English you'd say it in one sentence and that to me
feels like it should vaguely correspond to one line in code (perhaps
split over more than one line but that'd be due to long var names or
complex operations, not inherently).
I dunno, it always breaks my parser. The condition ends up between
the two dependents, and that doesn't work for me. I can have conditions
which are leading or trailing, but not infix.
It's a bit more readable to me because I can tell at a glance that a
single variable gets assigned a value based on a condition. With a
longer version it looks like something more complicated it going on, and
the eye has to look at all four lines and jump to another ident level.
Ahh! I see. There's several variants that could be discussed.
if condition:
x = y
else:
x = z
x = y if condition else z
And then the one I'm used to from other languages:
x = if condition then y else z
The other thing, from my point of view, is an ambiguity with a common
idiom I'm used to, again from other languages:
x = y if condition
If !condition, then nothing happens to x. So far as I can tell, that's
a syntax error in Python -- I can't use postfix if to modify a sentence,
because it's an expression thing.
By the way, it also looks far more readable in an editor where if and
else would be highlighted vs. all in plain colour.
I use syntax coloring in programming languages precisely as often, and
for precisely the same reasons, that I use it when writing in English.
Which is to say, if such a feature exists, I turn it off immediately
because it consistently distracts me from following the actual meaning
of code. Syntax is the least part of the meaning of code; giving extra
weight to syntax is pretty disruptive, IMHO.
Funny that you should say that, because I thought quite a few times that
it would be really awesome if some texts in English had syntax
highlighting. Obviously, not Brothers Karamazov, but something like a
tutorial, or a manual, or an online article. If key words were
highlighted, I'd be able to quickly glance over parts that are not
useful to me at the time, and find the interesting bits.
For instance, in the above paragraph I'd highlight 'awesome', 'English',
'syntax highlighting', 'tutorial', 'manual', 'online article',
'quickly glance over', 'not useful', 'find', 'interesting bits'.
It'd be like speed reading, except real!
-ak
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