"Alex Martelli" <aleaxit@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:200310171903.42578.aleaxit@yahoo.com...
On Friday 17 October 2003 06:38 pm, Skip Montanaro wrote: ...
Alex> ... just as e.g. foo[ 'va':23:2j,
{'zip':'zop'}:45:(3,4) ] ...
I have absolutely no idea how to interpret this. Is this existing
or
proposed Python syntax?
Perfectly valid and current existing Python syntax:
class F(object): ... def __getitem__(self, x): return x ... foo=F() foo[ 'va':23:2j, {'zip':'zop'}:45:(3,4) ] (slice('va', 23, 2j), slice({'zip': 'zop'}, 45, (3, 4)))
Not particularly _sensible_, mind you, and I hope nobody's yet written any container that IS to be indexed by such tuples of slices of multifarious nature. But, indexing does stretch quite far in the current Python syntax and semantics (in Python's *pragmatics* you're supposed to use it far more restrainedly).
In your commercial programming group, would you accept such a slice usage from another programmer, especially without prior agreement of the group? Or would you want to edit, as you would with 'return x<y and True or False' and might with 'return x<z and 4 or 2'? If you would reject it in practice, then it is hardly an argument for something arguably even odder. Terry J. Reedy