On Wed, 08 Jun 2005 11:01:27 -0700, Mahesh wrote: > No, why should Python assume that if you use != without supplying a > __ne__ that this is what you want? Without direction it will compare > the two objects which is the default behavior.
Why should Python assume that != means "not is" instead of "not equal"? That seems like an especially perverse choice given that the operator is actually called "not equal". > So, s != t is True because the ids of the two objects are different. > The same applies to, for example s > t and s < t. Do you want Python to > be smart and deduce that you want to compare one variable within the > object if you don't create __gt__ and __lt__? I do not want Python to > do that. That is an incorrect analogy. The original poster doesn't want Python to guess which attribute to do comparisons by. He wants "!=" to be defined as "not equal" if not explicitly overridden with a __ne__ method. If there are no comparison methods defined, then and only then does it make sense for == and != to implicitly test object identity. I'm all for the ability to override the default behaviour. But surely sensible and intuitive defaults are important? -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
