On 4/3/14 5:43 PM, Chris Angelico wrote:
So your definition of "useful" for the Decimal module is "fast" and your definition of "useful" for Unicode is "mandated into use".
No. I did not define 'useful'. I placed 'useful' on a continuum whereby 'useful' is non definitive & relative. Go read it again. Decimal became practical (due to performance enhancement) and therefore 'bumped up' on the 'useful' continuum. Unicode in python3 is more 'useful' than in python2; yet, useful for a given purpose in *both* (based on user preference and "suitability for a particular purpose")
One of the reasons that many of us include a boiler plate legal disclaimer about useability in our open source is that "suitable for a particular purpose", ehem 'useful,' is entirely in the eye(s) of the beholder.
Python is useful in that I am able to wield it to solve my problems.
Python is 'useful' because I am able to solve my computational problems with it. Python3 is *more* 'useful' than Python2 for my purposes of computability and computational problem solving--- don't look for it in the dictionary. 'Useful' is as 'useful' does. 'Useful' is as I perceive it. 'Useful' is also as you perceive it. Immanuel kant said, "Perception is reality". 'Useful' is perceived reality--- a continuum between to extremes--- useless on the one hand, and flexible and all-powerful on the other. Oh, and by the by, my perceived continuum will 'look' different than your perceived continuum. In fact, they might be overlapping but probably will be non intersecting (all depending upon our own perceptions).
marcus -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
