use 'x is None' instead of 'x == None'
The built-in None object is a singleton and it is therefore safe to
compare memory addresses with is. It is also faster, how much depends
on the object being compared. For a simple type like str I get:
| s = "foo" | s = None
----------+-----------+----------
s == None | 0.25 usec | 0.21 usec
s is None | 0.17 usec | 0.17 usec
% basic
% unknown
*** [alias] unknown: command bargle is unknown
% ambiguous
*** [alias] ambiguous: command s is ambiguous
% recursive
*** [alias] recursive: circular dependency on recursive
adding foo
% with opts
C foo
% with opts and whitespace
0 e63c23eaa88a | 1970-01-01 00:00 +0000
% interaction with defaults
0:e63c23eaa88a
-1:000000000000