On Wed, 10 Oct 2012 23:44:42 -0700, suzaku wrote: > I think if a programmer has used the built-in `random` module before, he > would expect a function with "sample" in its name to return a population > sequence.
I have used the random module for about fifteen years, and I still write random.sample when I need to use random.choice. In statistics, probability, and plain English, a sample can be a single item: that's why we can say "a sample" or "two samples". > If a function is to return scalar value instead of sequence, I would > expect it to be named "choice". And I wouldn't. But what do I care? I'm never going to use the code you're talking about, so call it "sasquatch" if you like, it's no skin off my nose. :) -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
