On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 10:47:28 -0800, James Stroud <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tuesday 15 March 2005 08:25 am, Roy Smith wrote: > > a = () # tuple of zero elements > > a = (1,) # tuple of one element > > a = 1, # tuple of one element > > a = (1) # scalar > > a = (1, 2) # tuple of two elements > > a = 1, 2 # tuple of two elements > > a = , # syntax error > > > > The big question is, is it the parens that make it a tuple, or is it > > the comma? If you go along with the parens school of thought, then > > (1,) is the special case. If you believe in commas, then the () is > > the special case. In either case, it's a bit ugly, but we learn to > > overlook the occasional cosmetic blemishes of those we love :-) > > The answer is obvious, the naked comma should be an empty tuple. >
The other answer, that parens should be required to surround all tuples, is obvious too. Neither is particularly appealing; a lone comma creating a data structure seems counter-intuitive, but it's nice to do a, b = b, a instead of (a, b) = (b, a) . In this case, since the need to create empty tuples is vanishingly rare, I'm okay with a little inconsistency. Peace Bill Mill bill.mill at gmail.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
