Steven D'Aprano wrote: > On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 12:30:23 +0100, Steve Holden wrote: > > >>>This makes me wonder why we still don't have something like the unint >>>function above in the standard distribution. >>> >> >>Because it's not what you'd call (or, at least, it's not what I'd call) >>universally required. As you have shown it is relatively easy to hack >>something supp when it's needed, so since it isn't something that's >>required by the majority it hasn't been added to the library. > > > Have you looked at what's in the standard Python library? > > aifc.py => Stuff to parse AIFF-C and AIFF files. > imghdr.py => Recognize image file formats based on their first few bytes. > gopher.py => Gopher protocol client interface. > token.py => Token constants (from "token.h"). > > I'm sure they are useful to somebody, but do you really think that the > majority of Python users need to parse AIFF files? > > Converting base-19 strings into integers is a rather niche need, but if > somebody bothered to write, document and provide unittests for such a > module, I'm sure it could be added to the standard library. It isn't as if > there is any policy of prohibiting specialist modules just because they > don't have universal need. > > And no, I'm not volunteering. I may, if I get an itch, but at this moment > in my life I'm not that fussed one way or another. > > > Well, here I have to fall back on history. I only started using Python in the mid-to-late 1990's. In those days modules were added to the language because they existed, and it was an easy way to distribute them.
Now Python has a significant user base the development of the language, and the structure of the libraries, comes under more scrutiny, and there is a general feeling that parsimony is to be preferred to bloat. I can hardly disagree with you that aifc.py represents bloat by today's standards, and I don't think I could name a single gopher user (though that was certainly NOT the case in the mid-1990s). and-i-still-can't-find-an-email-tool-with-dwim-ly y'rs - steve -- Steve Holden +44 150 684 7255 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC http://www.holdenweb.com/ -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
