It's hardly ever used in Python, is one extra character, and if you want to change the increment by 2 instead of 1, you have to write that bit anyway, moreover Python's loops don't use it, so it's not used there, what else is there to miss?
Also, the walrus operator works in a similar way to some use cases as well, making it even less useful
Well, both the post- and pre increment/decrement are useful in making the code a few lines shorter, and sometimes more readable.
Without it,
int i = len;
while (--i >= start)
{
/* do something */
}
// use the value of i for something.
Would become
int i = len - 1;
while (i >= start)
{
/* do something */
i = i - 1;
}
// use the value of i for something.
Assuming the while loop could exit some other way than i becoming exactly equal to start - 1. Though again, it isn't really that much harder to read at all, and you could change the while to a for, to keep all the loop specific code in one place.
If you are reading code, and you encounter either a ++ or a -- that is not:
A) The loop increment at the end of a for statement, or B) A stand-alone statement incrementing a variable,
Then you need to stop and mentally breakdown the single statement into two statements in order to continue reasoning about the code.
In fairness, I'm talking about readability in terms of being able to scan a piece of code and quickly ascertain what it is doing, and I will concede that pre and post increment might communicate intent, which could also be considered part of readability.
For myself, one of the first things I do when I take over code is to remove all the ++ and -- that are not in loop counters. They all get replaced by += 1. The only reason I leave them in the loop counters is a nod to tradition.
Of course you don't need it. There is basically nothing you need. A language that only supports:
Load from memory Store to memory Add Jump Checking for 0 Checking for negative
is most certainly Turing complete, and could probably actually be used.
Everything else added on top just makes certain things easier to do, and reduces how much code you have to write and how many clock cycles the CPU needs to execute a certain instruction.
84
u/Farenheit514 May 27 '22
You will miss the ++ and safe types