> To answer that question: for the same reasons. The conversion is > wasteful; allowing python to do the right thing based on a > typeconstraint is not. Plus, it is less code, and more readable code; > the only rule you have to learn is quite general, which is that :: is > a type constraint annotation; no need to remember specifics, like > 'unpacking always returns lists for some arbitrary reason'.
Oh my bad; actually, that should be: 'collecting the remainder of an unpacked iterable using * will always yield a list. That is, unless the construct appears inside a function definition; then somehow a tuple is always the right choice' -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
