I appreciate falsiness in python as well (especially for None, [], {}, set([]))... Interestingly I think zero is arguably the most dubious of the falsies (not that I'd recommend changing it, for obvious backward compatibility pain), but I can remember being burned by bugs from zero evaluating False a number of times, yet I can't once remember being burned by any of the other values I listed burning me.
I do hope the ticket in question is reconsidered though. Midnight is obviously a "valid and populous instance" that shouldn't evaluate False.
> I appreciate falsiness in python as well (especially for None, [], {}, set([]))... Interestingly I think zero is arguably the most dubious of the falsies (not that I'd recommend changing it, for obvious backward compatibility pain), but I can remember being burned by bugs from zero evaluating False a number of times, yet I can't once remember being burned by any of the other values I listed burning me.
Agreed, "0 as False" sounds like "let's take a leaf from C and its bad type system". I generally rely on falsiness as well, except when dealing with number, and the inconsistency is annoying. I also agree that midnight is not inherently more false than noon or any other date. But I guess that's a risk with falsiness, just like it is with other magic methods: sometimes you take the magic too far.
"0 is False" is extremely useful to a Pythonista. Ever indexed into an array with a boolean offset? Yes, you can do that. (False is 0, True is 1). Makes for very succinct code.
I do hope the ticket in question is reconsidered though. Midnight is obviously a "valid and populous instance" that shouldn't evaluate False.