While testing recursive algoritms dealing with generic lists I stumbled on infinite loops which were triggered by the fact that (at least for my version of Pyton) characters contain themselves.See session:
system prompt% python Python 2.3.5 (#2, Feb 9 2005, 00:38:15) [GCC 3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-8)] on linux2 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. .... >>> 'a' is 'a' True >>> 'a' in 'a' True >>> 'a' in ['a'] True >>> .... Leading to paradoxes and loops objects which contain themselves (and other kinds of monsters) are killed in set theory with the Axiom of Foundation:=) But let's go back to more earthly matters. I couldn't find any clue in a python FAQ after having googled with the following "Python strings FAQ" about why this design choice and how to avoid falling in this trap without having to litter my code everywhere with tests for stringiness each time I process a generic list of items. Any hints would be appreciated. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list