That's why I gave the caveat that if using a language with the ternary operator, one should know that operator. Python tried using English words for a ternary,

That's why I gave the caveat that if using a language with the ternary operator, one should know that operator. Python tried using English words for a ternary, but I think that's awkward from a readability perspective. A limited set of symbolic syntax improves readability over using words in my opinion, there's less text to scan.