
On Thursday 13 March 2003 09:09 pm, Kevin J. Butler wrote: ...
The important characteristics of lists are also independent of each other (again, IMO on the order):
- mutability of length & content - used for dynamically building collections - heterogeneity allowed but not required - used occasionally for specific needs
I think some methods must also go on this list of important characteristics -- the sort method, in particular. If you need to sort stuff (including heterogenous stuff, EXCEPT if the latter includes at least one complex AND at least one other number of any kind) you put it into a list and sort the list -- that's the Python way of sorting, and sorting is an often-needed thing. Sorting plays with mutability by working in-place, but for many uses it would be just as good if sorting returned a sorted copy instead -- the key thing here is the sorting, not the mutability. Alex