From: Tutor [mailto:tutor-bounces+crk=godblessthe...@python.org] On Behalf Of Danny Yoo Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2014 5:25 PM To: Ben Finney; tutor@python.org Subject: Re: [Tutor] “has a value of True” versus “evaluates true” On Tue Nov 11 2014 at 3:09:38 PM Ben Finney <ben+pyt...@benfinney.id.au <mailto:ben%2bpyt...@benfinney.id.au> > wrote: "Clayton Kirkwood" <c...@godblessthe.us> writes: > So, there is a difference between None and False, is that the issue? Yes. Those two values are different and not equal; but both evaluate false in a boolean context. Just to note; not all programming languages do it this way. Python is fairly permissive in what it allows to be "truthy". See: https://plus.google.com/+ShriramKrishnamurthi/posts/4qvvKYC1R8Y for a brief survey of what many other programming languages do. It can be confusing and bug-prone as heck. For myself, I usually want as restrictive an approach as possible with respect to what things are considered "truthy". If I'm in a boolean context, I will explicitly make the expression being tested be either True or False, and that's it. That way, I know I won't get into shaky waters. I program in multiple languages: I don't want to spend brain power remembering yet another a truth table about truth. Thanks, Danny, that’s kind of the thing I learned about this whole issue. Force the issue truth by casting. Don’t know if I’ll always keep it, but that seems prudent. What led to a portion of this whole issue was that I was assuming that equal sign assignment would produce a True/False certainty which could be tested. I vaguely recall this premise in another language, probably C or Perl. Truthfully, Clayton To quote: "Let your statement be: 'Yes, yes', or "no, no': anything beyond these is of evil." :P
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