In article <mailman.2233.1313179799.1164.python-l...@python.org>, Chris Angelico <ros...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Python uses the + and - symbols to mean addition > and subtraction for good reason. Let's not alienate the mathematical > mind by violating this rule. Computer programming languages follow math conventions only in the most vague ways. For example, standard math usage dictates that addition is commutative. While this is true for adding integers, it's certainly not true for adding strings (in any language which supports string addition). Where to draw the line between math and programming languages is not an easy question. > It would be far safer to go the other way > and demand parentheses on everything. Demand, no, but sometimes it's a good idea. I've been writing computer programs for close to 40 years, and I still have no clue what most of the order of operations is. It's just not worth investing the brain cells to remember such trivia (especially since the details change from language to language). Beyond remembering the (apparently) universal rule that {*, /} bind tighter than {+, -}, I pretty much just punt on everything else and put in extra parens everywhere. It's not the most efficient way to write code, and probably doesn't even result in the prettiest code. But it sure does eliminate those face-palm moments at the end of a long debugging session when you realize that somebody got it wrong. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list