Ben Finney wrote: > Steve Holden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > >>This would just be bloat > > > How would it be bloat? I'm describing a situation where the existing > methods merely move, being implemented in a common ancestor rather > than directly in the concrete sequence classes. > > >>without any use cases being demonstrated. What is your crying need >>for these methods? > > > I don't think I claimed a crying need for one. Consistency, where not > foolish, is desirable. > > I don't deny that there is work involved; my suggestion was in the > context of talking about a common ancestor to 'bytes' and 'str', in > order to refactor some of the common methods. > > >>Your *real* generalisation of the string method would actually >>require you to write >> >> ["foo", "bar", "spam", "baz", "quux", "wibble"].startswith(["foo"]) > > > Yes, you're right. I realised that after sending, but didn't correct > it. > > >>Python didn't get to be the language it is today by adding >>unnecessary hypergeneralisations on a whim. Show me how these >>methods will improve the daily lives of programmers and I'll >>champion them to the developers, but I don't think the world will be >>beating a path to your door. > > > Again, I'm discussing a still-nascent suggestion for a common sequence > ancestor; there are no demands here. If there is to be generalisation, > I'm merely pointing out that it could be at a higher level and be more > useful. > > If nothing else, it would lend more coherence to the "str is a > sequence" confusion if *all* sequences shared some str-derived > methods. > Unfortunately this is where your argument falls to the ground. Strings really are special, since each element of a string is another string. What confusion?
Any proposal that tries to make strings and lists subclasses of a common ancestor is doomed to failure: strings are highly optimised for performance (in Python and in other languages), and the optimisations just wouldn't translate to a "generic sequence". That's just life in the real world. regards Steve -- Steve Holden +44 150 684 7255 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com Skype: holdenweb http://holdenweb.blogspot.com Recent Ramblings http://del.icio.us/steve.holden -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
