I am comparing Python to a few other scripting languages, and used a simple
anagrams program as a sample.
I was surprised ast a few python features that did not work as I would
expect/wish; which caused less compact/expressive program styles that I
wanted - reverting to a FORTRAN like series of assignments.
For example,
- why is len() not a member function of strings? Instead one says len(w).
- Why doesn't sort() return a value?
This would allow things like:
key = '',join( list(word.lower().strip()).sort() )
instead:
key = ...
key.sort()
key = ...
- Another feature I assumed but it failed, is a nice default for
dictionaries, and more += like operations;
For example: to acculumate words in a dictionary -
dict[key] += [word]
Instead of:
mark[key] = mark.get(key,[]) + [word]
The former seems very intuitive, and clearer.
I am a bit used to the compactness and convenient defaults of Perl, which
would do this:
my $key = join '', sort(split(//, lc($word)));
push @{$anagrams{$key}}, $word
I am curious why these "obvious" conveniences are not present. :-)
Thansk for any context or insight.
Best,
Gregory
Perl is great, and
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