On 9/25/07, Mark Summerfield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I can understand your personal preference for dict, although mine is for > sorteddict---but IMO Python should provide both since both are > legitimate in appropriate contexts.
Careful what you wish for. One of Python's strengths is that there is *not* a lot of choice in data type implementations (unless you go to relatively obscure places like the collections module or 3rd party extensions). This saves programmers time because they don't have to decide what data type implementation to use in cases where it doesn't matter (and that's the majority of cases). This is not a rationalization after the fact: it has always been a specific design goal in Python to minimize the number of decisions that a programmer must make up front. This goal also minimizes the danger that the *wrong* decision is made, as the standard data types are pretty darn good for almost any purpose. -- --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/) _______________________________________________ Python-3000 mailing list Python-3000@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-3000 Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-3000/archive%40mail-archive.com
