<p>How is starting an accumulator and returning it unconditionally *more* complicated than "if you don't find any portions return None".</p>
<p>"Why should I do that, what happens if I just return my empty container instead?"</p>
<p>"Oh, that's the same as returning None."</p>
<p>It makes no sense. We *have* to handle the empty iterator case regardless. Allowing None *as well* is just plain redundant. </p>
<p>Regards,<br>
Nick. <br>
--<br>
Sent from my phone, thus the relative brevity :) </p>