Guido van Rossum wrote:
> On 6/22/06, Nick Coghlan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> Talin wrote:
>> > I don't get what the problem is here. A switch constant should have
>> > exactly the bahavior of a default value of a function parameter. We
>> > don't seem to have too many problems defining functions at the module
>> > level, do we?
>>
>> Because in function definitions, if you put them inside another
>> function, the
>> defaults of the inner function get reevaluated every time the outer
>> function
>> is run. Doing that for the switch statement would kinda defeat the whole
>> point. . .
>
> Really? Then where would you store the dict? You can't store it on the
> code object because that's immutable. You can't store it on the
> function object (if you don't want it to be re-evaluated when the
> function is redefined) because a new function object is created by
> each redefinition. There needs to be *some* kind of object with a
> well-defined life cycle where to store the dict.
>
> I'd say that we should just add a warning against switches in nested
> functions that are called only once per definition.
I wasn't very clear. . .
Talin noted that there's no ambiguity with the timing of the evaluation of
default function arguments, regardless of whether the function definition is
at module scope or inside another function - the default arguments are simply
evaluated every time the function definition is executed. So he wondered why
that simplicity didn't translate to the evaluation of switch cases.
With a switch statement, we want the cases evaluated when the *containing* def
statement is executed, not every time the switch statement itself is executed.
Which makes things far more complex :)
Cheers,
Nick.
--
Nick Coghlan | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Brisbane, Australia
---------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.boredomandlaziness.org
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