[Python-Dev] Linked lists

[Martin Blais]

Hello again.

As I'm digging deeper into LISP and Scheme these days, I was
wondering, is there a good compelling reason why in Python we don't
have a native singly-linked and doubly-linked list types?

That is, reasons other than
- "you can get by without it" (sometimes I *want* lists), or
- "you can use tuples to emulate lists" (only in limited contexts, and
it's not pretty), or
- "you can code your own in Python" (not as efficient as native types)

Maybe I'm slapping an old horse here, but searching the archives I
could not find some relevant controversy, that would--I hoped--include
a final word from the BDFL.

If I had "real" lists I would use them more often, where I now use
Python lists (vectors, really).  (Although In LISP I have the reverse
problem, I tend to use lists sometimes where I should use arrays--I
think I need to grow up).

Anyway, why not provide good lists or cons-cell classes in C?