gilch comments on An Apprentice Experiment in Python Programming, Part 2

[gilch]

The section “Branching without if” is a bit confusing, because it is unclear if those examples work or need more code.

The relevant context is the earlier definition of @if_.

def if_(condition):
    def decorator(c):
        if condition:
            return c.then()
        else:
            return c.else_()
    return decorator

So

def if_(condition):
    def decorator(c):
        return [c.then, c.else][not condition]()
    return decorator

would have the same behavior, and does not itself have an if statement. I’ve implemented if without using if.