In Memoriam: Tim Peters 1952–2026

Re:In Memoriam: Tim Peters 1952–2026 by tacitusarc on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @07:58PM (#50461489)

Booleans are reductionist and likely harmful, as they allow programmers to avoid thinking in terms of the test they are actually performing: is this a member of some set? If the problem is reworked like that Booleans are superfluous (this representation could be compiled to something as performant as using Booleans).

I am not sure if that perspective aligns with yours.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:In Memoriam: Tim Peters 1952–2026 by zephen on Thursday November 12, 2026 @01:04AM (#50463604)

Not sure why you're getting downvoted so much, but to put this thought into a somewhat broader context:

In an explicitly, statically typed language, bools might be useful as a standard small enum.

In what Python used to be, they weren't, not really.

But for whatever reason, declared typing is now an add-on to the language, and the people who like the verbosity of declared typing also, perhaps schizophrenically, like the terseness afforded by having a standard small enum.

[ Parent | on HN ]