Juan Shen wrote:
<SNIP>
Yeah, I support Kent. Brian's code is obviously C style, define a variable and give it an origin value, then use it, modify its value and so on. If you choose Python, you should adapt to it that variable needn't to be defined specificly before being used!
Hi Juan and Blake,
Juan: I wish my problem were coming from competency in C infecting my approach to Python! Apart from some happily ill-remembered BASIC, I am unlingual as a programmer.
I far prefer the Brian's version, because it lets me set a single breakpoint while I'm debugging, and I can look at the return value before returning it, instead of having to set n breakpoints (or, usually n-1 because I've overlooked the one that's actually being executed) and looking at what's being returned on each line. (Yes, I do the same thing in C and C++, but I originally started using it in Java, and after a few debugging sessions it makes a lot of sense.) Only having one return point from a function is a long-standing convention that is supposed to make programs easier to read/debug/optimize/prove correct.
Blake,
the point about making debugging easier is what I was (trying to be) pointing towards. Thanks for making it clearly, unencumbered by the sort of basic efficiency error (of overlooking that I can just return the boolean result of some condition) that I keep putting into my examples ;-)
Best to all,
Brian vdB
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