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Date: Sat, 14 May 2011 10:28:07 -0400
Subject: Re: checking if a list is empty
From: David Robinow <drobinow@gmail.com>
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Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.python:5367

On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 10:34 PM, Gregory Ewing
<greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> rusi wrote:
>
>> Dijkstra's problem (paraphrased) is that python, by choosing the
>> FORTRAN alternative of having a non-first-class boolean type, hinders
>> scientific/mathematical thinking/progress.
>
> Python doesn't have the flaw that Dijkstra was talking about.
> Fortran's flaw wasn't so much the lack of a boolean type, but
> that you couldn't assign the result of a logical expression to
> a variable. Python has always been able to do that, even before
> it had a distinct boolean type.
And Fortran could do it at least 25 years before Python was invented.