[Python-Dev] Tuples and underorderable types

[Aahz]

On Fri, Apr 24, 2009, Raymond Hettinger wrote:
>
> I'm wondering if there is something we can do to mitigate the issue in
> a general way.  It bites that the venerable technique of tuple sorting
> has lost some of its mojo.  This may be an unintended consequence of
> eliminating default comparisons.

My understanding was that this was entirely an *intended* consequence of
eliminating default comparisons.  Not so much in the sense that it was
desired by itself, but that the whole discussion of whether to keep
moving forward in stripping out default comparisons explicitly revolved
around whether this kind of difficulty warranted the overall
simplification we now have (I don't remember off-hand whether this
specific case was discussed, though).

I think that anyone who wants to suggest reverting to some kind of
default comparison behavior needs to write up a PEP and clearly summarize
all previous discussion prior to 3.0 release, then go through the usual
grind of starting with python-ideas before coming back to python-dev.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait
until you hire an amateur."  --Red Adair