A quick followup to my own posting: I meant to say something about implementing __rand__() and pop(). I'd either add another optional function argument to the constructor. It would return a random element from the universe. Then for __rand__() and pop(), you'd call until it (hopefully!) returned something not excluded. Or, do something non-random, like return a random (non-excluded) integer. Or, just raise an exception.
I think I prefer the extra argument approach, where the docs state clearly that you can expect to wait longer and longer for random elements as you empty a finite inverted set. I prefer this approach because getting a random element from a set is something you really should be able to do. Just raising an exception is the cleanest and clearest choice. One thing I certainly would not consider is trying to mess around with the excluded set (which may in any case be empty) to figure out a suitable return type. And yes, I agree in advance, adding 5 new optional arguments to the set() constructor isn't pretty. Is the added functionality is worth it? Terry _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
