On Fri, 2010-08-06 at 22:05 -0500, Default User wrote: > >From "the emperor's new clothes" department: > > 1) Why do Python lists start with element [0], instead of element > [1]? "Common sense" would seem to suggest that lists should start > with [1].
"Common sense" is wrong. There are many compelling advantages to numbering from zero instead of one: http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/1950 > 2) In Python 3, why is print a function only, so that: print "Hello, > World" is not okay, but it must be print("Hello, World") instead? > (Yeah, I know: picky, picky . . . ) The real question is, why was print so special in Python 2 that is can be called without parentheses? The answer was "no reason" and it was fixed in Python 3 to be consistent with the rest of the language. > 3) In Python 3, why does 2.0 / 3.0 display as 0.6666666666666666, but > 8 * 3.57 displays as 28.56 (rounded off to 2 decimal places)? And > yet, in Python 2.6, 8 * 3.57 displays as 28.559999999999999? Because the code for displaying floats was improved in python 3. You can follow the fascinating discussion on issue 7117: http://bugs.python.org/issue7117 I can't defend the rounding issues of floating point numbers in general - it's just "one of those things" that you have to deal with. But show me a language where floats don't have this problem. > And we wonder why kids don't want to learn to program. Yeah, obscure language warts, that must be the reason. Note to self: DNFTT... Ryan -- Ryan Kelly http://www.rfk.id.au | This message is digitally signed. Please visit r...@rfk.id.au | http://www.rfk.id.au/ramblings/gpg/ for details -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
