[Python-Dev] Switch statement

Fri Jun 23 20:01:47 CEST 2006

Reading on in the thread it seems that there's agreement
on using "static" instead of "const", to s/const/static
:-)

M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> Georg Brandl wrote:
>> M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
>>>>> A nice side-effect would be that could easily use the
>>> same approach to replace the often used default-argument-hack,
>>> e.g.
>>>>>> def fraction(x, int=int, float=float):
>>> return float(x) - int(x)
>>>>>> This would then read:
>>>>>> def fraction(x):
>>> const int, float
>>> return float(x) - int(x)
>> There's a certain risk that the premature-optimization fraction will
>> plaster every function with const declarations, but they write
>> unreadable code anyway ;)
>>>> Aside from this, there's still another point: assume you have quite a
>> number of module-level string "constants" which you want to use in a switch.
>> You'd have to repeat all of their names in a "const" declaration in order
>> to use them this way.
>> If you want to use the switch-dispatch table optimization, yes.
>> I'm sure we could find ways to make such declarations more
> user-friendly. E.g. to declare all symbols imported from a
> module constant:
>> # Declare the name "module" constant:
> const module
>> # Declare all references "module.<something>" constant:
> const module.*
>> This would allow you to e.g. declare all builtins constant,
> avoiding cluttering up your code with const declarations,
> as in the above example.
>> Note that such a declaration would go beyond just the use in
> a switch statement. It allows you to declare names reserved
> within the scope you are defining them in and gives them
> a special meaning - much like "global" does.
>> Indeed, with this kind of declaration you wouldn't need to
> add the switch statement to benefit from the dispatch
> table optimization, since the compiler could easily identify
> an if-elif-else chain as being optimizable even if it uses
> symbols instead of literals for the values.
>> Furthermore, the compiler could do other optimizations on the
> const declared names, such as optimizing away global lookups
> and turning them into code object constants lookups.
>
-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
eGenix.com
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