On Aug 22, 9:54 pm, Steven D'Aprano <[EMAIL PROTECTED] cybersource.com.au> wrote:
> On Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:39:11 -0700, Emile van Sebille wrote: > > Dan wrote: > >> I'd suggest that at the > >> end of the tutorial, when people have a better general idea of how > >> Python works, there would be a Python Gotchas section. > > > Hmmm, OK -- mutable defaults, integer division, name mangling... > > > I'd think decimal precision is more a general problem than a python > > problem, but still one that throws newbies... > > > Any other ideas for gotcha's (as opposed to faqs)? > > Augmented assignment: x ?= y is not always the same as x = x ? y. > > Repeated string addition can be very slow. For that matter, so can list > addition. > > Inserting at the beginning of lists is slow. > > Everything about unicode is a Gotcha! *wink* > > Raw strings are not designed for Windows paths, they're designed for > regexes. Consequently, you can't write the following: > > r'C:\dir\' > > list.sort() and list.reverse() return None. > > sorted() returns a list, but reversed() returns an iterator. > > urllib2.urlopen() will automatically detect the proxy in your environment > and use that. That's usually a feature, but sometimes it can be a gotcha. > > urllib2 doesn't work well with some HTTPS proxies. This is, I believe, a > known bug, but until it is fixed, it can be a gotcha. My "favorite": comparisons between disparate types are allowed by default. Thankfully fixed in 3.0. George -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
