while True or while 1

Sat Jan 21 16:14:24 EST 2012

Andrea Crotti wrote:
> I see sometimes in other people code "while 1" instead of "while True".
> I think using True is more pythonic, but I wanted to check if there is
> any difference in practice.

No (with the exception of `True` and `False` being rebinable in Python 
2). The idiomatic `while 1` notation comes from back in the pre-Boolean 
days. In any reasonably modern implementation, `while True` is more 
self-documenting. I would imagine the primary reason people still do 
it, any after-the-fact rationalizations aside, is simply habit.
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