From: "Skip Montanaro"
>> * loopzip() - It's not clear why its next() method should return a >> list instead of a tuple (again, a seemingly needless distiction >> with its builtin counterpart, zip()).
Raymond> I've wrestled with the one. The short answer is that zip() Raymond> already does a pretty good job and that the only use for Raymond> loopzip() is super high speed looping. To that end, reusing a Raymond> single list instead of allocating and building tuples is *much* Raymond> faster.
How do you know the caller doesn't squirrel away the list you returned on the n-th iteration? I don't see how you can safely reuse the same list.
After more thought, I think loopzip() is too unsavory and taints an otherwise clean package, so I'll take it out unless someone wants to stand-up for it. Too bad, it was an exceptionally fast solution to the lock-step iteration problem. Raymond