(libpaths or '').split(":") This isn't quite the same: if libpaths is None, the above will evaluate to [''], while the original evaluated to []. Of course, th

(libpaths or '').split(":") This isn't quite the same: if libpaths is None, the above will evaluate to [''], while the original evaluated to []. Of course, the original code was rather awkward itself, redefining the same variable to have a completely different meaning, as well as potentially involving four different representations of nothingness. I'm not sure the syntax is the biggest problem here...