Feature request, implicit "except : pass"

[gd2shoe]

BPO	15804
Nosy	@rhettinger, @jcea, @benjaminp

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2012-08-29.03:04:23.153>
created_at = <Date 2012-08-29.01:37:15.854>
labels = ['interpreter-core', 'type-feature']
title = 'Feature request, implicit "except : pass"'
updated_at = <Date 2012-08-29.06:54:14.333>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/gd2shoe'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2012-08-29.06:54:14.333>
actor = 'ezio.melotti'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2012-08-29.03:04:23.153>
closer = 'benjamin.peterson'
components = ['Interpreter Core']
creation = <Date 2012-08-29.01:37:15.854>
creator = 'gd2shoe'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 15804
keywords = []
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['169326', '169327', '169328', '169331']
nosy_count = 4.0
nosy_names = ['rhettinger', 'jcea', 'benjamin.peterson', 'gd2shoe']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'low'
resolution = 'wont fix'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue15804'
versions = ['Python 3.4']

[gd2shoe]

I'm constantly finding myself writing itty-bitty try blocks like such:

process stuff
try : someSubProcess.kill()
except : pass
process stuff

I realize this isn't a rigorous use of except, but it's good enough for a vast majority of what I need it for. Still, it adds excess verbiage and makes code slightly harder to read.

All I need except to do most of the time is suppress exceptions. I think the language could be enhanced by making the except clause implicit.

the above would become:

process stuff
try : someSubProcess.kill()
process stuff

The intent remains clear. The code is cleaner and easier to read.

This does not happen often in rigorous code, but grep does find 3 counts in standard modules and 9 counts in numpy. I'm certain most prototype code (like mine) would greatly benefit. (My current 300 line project uses 4 so far.)

[rhettinger]

FWIW, this is already easy to do with decorators:

>>> class Pass:
	def __init__(self, exc):
		self.exc = exc
	def __enter__(self):
		return self
	def __exit__(self, exctype, excinst, exctb):
		return exctype == self.exc

	
>>> with Pass(IndexError):
	'hello'[10]

[jcea]

No way this is going to be in 2.7.

[benjaminp]

Please submit your idea to the python-ideas list.