true, but ensuring your list is sorted by length and checking that an object exists before renaming isnt THAT ugly.
it is if you're working with shortest unique names and the act of changing one of the objects in your list causes other names in the list to become invalid (no longer points to a unique object). and it's a lot uglier than not having to worry about it at all, as with pymel.
-chad
-- http://groups.google.com/group/python_inside_maya
