Hi Antoon, > The best way to remember how slices work is to think of the indices as ... > +---+---+---+---+---+ > | H | e | l | p | A | > +---+---+---+---+---+ > 0 1 2 3 4 5 > -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 > > This is all very well with a simple slice like: > > "HelpA"[2:4] => "lp"
But that is the whole point of a language tutorial, to introduce the language and provide a way to get started. Note that the tutorial doesn't even go into any details on extended slicing - as far as the beginner is concerned at this point, there *is* no extended slice notation. Even if the tutorial *did* go into more detail about slicing, mentioning negative steps would be folly - the tutorial should be an easy way into the language, and in such a context the above tool for remembering how they work is just fine. The exact (mathematical) definition for string slices is given in the Library reference (http://docs.python.org/lib/typesseq.html), which is where it should be. If you are at the point where understanding what the deal is with extended slice notation for strings, then you are ready to look at the real manual. If the tutorial was fully comprehensive it would be massive and daunting. You'd probably have to split it up as well, into, say, a Language reference and a Library reference. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
