I don't mind the naked star and will be happy if thats what we end up with.
Though how about using *None? I think that makes the intention of the function clearer. eg. def compare(a, b, *None, key=None): Which to me reads as "no further positional arguments". Or alternatively: def compare(a, b, *0, key=None): -- Mark -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
