On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 1:16 AM, Kiuhnm <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo...@mail.python.org> wrote: > On 3/15/2012 13:21, Chris Angelico wrote: >> >> On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 10:59 PM, Kiuhnm >> <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo...@mail.python.org> wrote: >>> >>> On 3/15/2012 12:47, Chris Angelico wrote: >>>> >>>> It's a little odd, perhaps, if seen in a vacuum. But everything counts >>>> from zero - list indices, etc - so it makes sense for range(len(lst)) >>>> to return indices valid for lst. >>> >>> >>> Maybe range uses [...) intervals? So range(a,b) is a,a+1,a+2,...,b-1 and >>> range(b) is just short-hand for range(0,b)? >> >> >> Yup. It's amazing how accurate your conjectures are - it's almost like >> you've been reading the docs! :D > > > Come on... that was easy! :) > > >> But yeah, that's pretty logical IMHO; >> and having gotten used to [) intervals in many areas of computing, >> I've come to find [] intervals disconcerting. Bible passages are >> described as, for instance, John 14:5-7, which is a three-verse >> passage (5, 6, 7), even though 7-5=2. > > > Common people use mainly inclusive intervals as far as I can tell. > For instance, "from" and "to" are inclusive. > They could tell you they don't like your intervals because 8-5+1 = 4 instead > of 3. > > >> However, inclusive-inclusive intervals have the benefit that they >> don't require the element "beyond the last" to be indexable. This is >> important if you're working with something that takes up all of >> addressable memory - going back to the IBM PCs on which I learned to >> code, you could use one 64KB segment for an array, but then there's no >> way for a 16-bit integer to indicate "past the end". > > > But you lose the empty interval (a,a). You're forced to use (a,a-1) or > something similar. There's always a drawback. > >>>> List comps are pretty readable if you know how programming languages >>>> work. Python need not be readable by everyone and his grandmother, and >>>> it does a fairly good job of being grokkable to someone who has a few >>>> ranks in Coding. (Yeah, I'm a D&D nerd. ) >>> >>> >>> I like what I've seen so far. >> >> >> Python has its problems, but it's a good language. I personally prefer >> to delimit blocks of code with braces than with indentation, > > > I, on the other hand, prefer indentation. I find braces redundant (in fact, > I never use them in pseudo-code). > > >> and I >> also prefer explicit declaration of variables (yes, it's extra work, >> but you can have infinitely nested scopes and easily-caught syntax >> errors when you misspell one), but they're relatively minor. > > > I usually declare my variables but close to where I need them. > > >> One of my >> favorite aspects of Python is that *everything* is an object. There's >> no magic syntax that gives you a piece of an object, or something >> special about variables that contain this, that, or the other. A >> literal list [like, this, one] can be used in exactly the same ways as >> the name of a variable containing a list or a function call returning >> a list - there is no difference. Oh how I yearn for that when working >> in C++ or PHP! > > > Don't worry. Soon you'll be using C++0x :))) > > Kiuhnm > -- > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
C++0x? You mean C++11? :P On that note, is Python upgrading to use C11? :V -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
