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Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2011 13:07:57 +1100
Subject: Re: Clever hack or code abomination?
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
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Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.python:16519

On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 11:15 AM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> wrote:
> Try this on for size.
>
>
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0f =3D type(q)(c[c.index(chr(45))+1:])+type=
(q)(1)
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0c =3D str.join('\n', list(map(chr, (45, 48=
))) + [c])[::2]
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0c =3D (lambda a,b: a+b)(c[:c.index(chr(45))+1], ty=
pe(c)(f))

I would consider integer representations of ASCII to be code smell.
It's not instantly obvious that 45 means '-', even if you happen to
know the ASCII table by heart (which most people won't). This is one
thing that I like about C's quote handling; double quotes for a
string, or single quotes for an integer with that character's value.
It's clearer than the Python (and other) requirement to have an actual
function call:

for (int i=3D0;i<10;++i) {
    digit[i]=3D'0'+i;
    letter[i]=3D'A'+i;
}

versus

for i in range(10):
    digit[i]=3Dchr(ord('0')+i)
    letter[i]=3Dchr(ord('A')+i)

Ignoring the fact that you'd probably use a list comp in Python, this
is imho a win for C.

ChrisA