On 16/05/2020 17:14, Guido van Rossum wrote:
On Sat, May 16, 2020 at 1:26 AM Steven D'Aprano <st...@pearwood.info
<mailto:st...@pearwood.info>> wrote:
> * zip(strict=True) +1
> * zip(mode='strict') -0
> * itertools.zip_strict() -0.5
> * zip.strict() -1 (but really, I'd like to make this
-1e10)
I spent a significant amount of time and mental energy explaining in
detail why a boolean flag is a poor API and is objectively the wrong
interface here. This is not just a matter of personal taste: there
are
reasons why a flag is wrong here.
[snip]
- your preferred option is the least open to future enhancements;
Given zip's stability, I doubt there will be a lot of other future
enhancements any time soon. In Python's culture, boolean flag is the
most common way to modify the behavior of a function. The reasons have
to do with tradition (lots of existing APIs use this pattern) as well
as ease of implementation (*also* in the Zen!), and also with how
people *think* about certain APIs. Zip-strict is "like zip, but
strict(er) in its requirements".
But Steven has a point. zip(mode='strict') would allow zip_longest
behaviour to be incorporated into zip at some future time, should that
be considered desirable.
(And conceivably other behaviours that might crop up. I don't have any
use cases, but one possibility might be "stop zipping after N items".)
Whereas doing that with a boolean `strict` would lead, as others have
pointed out, to an ugly API (2 booleans that can't both be True).
Rob Cliffe
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