[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I disagree. Programming languages should not needlessly surprise
people, and a newbie to Python probably expects that x[1:3] =
[x[1],x[2],x[3]].
But said newbie's expectations will differ considerably
depending on which other language he's coming from. So
he's almost always going to be surprised one way or another.
Python sensibly adopts a convention that long experience
has shown to be practical, rather than trying to imitate
any particular precedent.
Along the same lines, I think the REQUIREMENT that x[0] rather than
x[1] be the first element of list x is a mistake. At least the
programmer should have a choice
Who says the Python programmer doesn't have a choice?
class NewbieWarmFuzzyList(list):
def __new__(cls, base, *args):
obj = list.__new__(cls, *args)
obj.base = base
return obj
def __getitem__(self, i):
return list.__getitem__(self, i - self.base)
# etc...
--
Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept,
University of Canterbury,
Christchurch, New Zealand
http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/~greg
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http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
