On 2012-01-21, Erik Max Francis <m...@alcyone.com> wrote: > Chris Angelico wrote: >> On Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 12:47 AM, Andrea Crotti >> <andrea.crott...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> So I tried to do the following, and the result is surprising. For what >>> I can see it looks like the interpreter can optimize away the 1 boolean >>> conversion while it doesn't with the True, the opposite of what I >>> supposed. >>> >>> Anyone can explain me why is that, or maybe is my conclusion wrong? >> >> In Python 3, they compile to the same code, because 'True' is a >> keyword. In Python 2, you can reassign True to be 0. > > Why this should concern anyone, I don't know;
I don't think it does concern anybody (except the compiler, who treats all identifiers the same). [...] > The real reason people still use the `while 1` construct, I would > imagine, is just inertia or habit, That's certain why I do it. It's left over from the days when C and Python didn't have symbolic boolean "constants". > rather than a conscious, defensive decision. If it's the latter, > it's a case of being _way_ too defensive. -- Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! Hmmm ... A hash-singer at and a cross-eyed guy were gmail.com SLEEPING on a deserted island, when ... -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list