>AFAICT, it's not nothing at all to do with 'xor' in any sense.
As much as I agree that the function needn't be in the base of python, I
can easily follow the OP's logic on the function name.
With two items in the iterator, it is a standard binary exclusive or.
It is true if one of but not both
I don't think an exclusive-or/truthy-entries-count-checker needs to be a
builtin by any stretch.
>>> def xor( iterable, n = 1 ):
... return sum( map( bool, iterable ) ) == n
Or if you insist on short circuiting:
>>> def xor_ss( iterable, n = 1 ):
... for intermediate in itertools.accumulat
