On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 2:20 AM, Alf P. Steinbach <al...@start.no> wrote: > * Chris Rebert: >> On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 1:03 AM, Alf P. Steinbach <al...@start.no> wrote: >>> * Steven D'Aprano: >>>> On Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:56:36 +0100, Alf P. Steinbach wrote: >>>>> * Paul Rudin: >>>>>> Sebastian <sebastian.lan...@gmx.de> writes: <snip> >>>>> Using the term "array" accentuates and clarifies this most important >>>>> aspect. >>>> >>>> But Python lists are designed to behave as lists. >>> >>> No, I'm sorry, they're not. >>> >>> A Python 'list' has de facto constant time indexing, or "random access". >>> >>> A linked list -- what the informal "list" means in programming >> >> Eh, it's a bit context-dependent. The abstract data type definition is >> a superset that includes both linked lists and dynamic arrays. > > Assuming you're talking about some abstract type definition that's in some > PEP somewhere
No, I mean the computer science definition/term: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_(computer_science) >> FWIW, Java likewise uses "list" in its ADT sense. > > I'm sorry, I'm unfamiliar with that Java terminology (but then, reportedly, > many Java programmers think that Java has "pass by reference", so nothing > coming from that direction will surprise me very much!). The Java language > specification has a section about arrays, none about lists AFAICS. Do you > have a reference? http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/util/List.html Cheers, Chris -- http://blog.rebertia.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
