Jim Jewett wrote:
Guido van Rossum:
Whether to segregate these into a separate module: they are really a very small amount of syntactic sugat, and I expect that in most cases, instead of importing that module (which totally makes me lose my context while editing) I would probably just write the extra line that it takes to get the same effect with an explicit for loop and if statement.
Is that so bad?
If you plan to use them often, then
from itertools import any, every
is reasonable. If you only use them once and weren't expecting it (and want your imports at the top) ... well how awful is it to have an extra line or two in your code?
Basically the question (at least in my mind) when it comes to built-ins is whether the usage is so basic and fundamental that sticking them in a module is done more for rigid organization than for convenience. Personally, I think any() and all() meet this requirement. With their ties to basic boolean testing they should be built into the language and not just a part of the stdlib. If I am banging something out at a interpreter prompt I will want these functions easily accessible and I won't think of them as something to import. This probably comes off as wishy-washy, but it is just what my mind is spitting out at the moment. They also have the feeling as something that could be useful as a syntax (although I am just suggesting syntactic support!). Which could be an even better way to measure whether something should be a built-in. Would the function be useful as a syntactic addition to the language, but just can't quite reach the need of a new keyword? Once again any() and all() feel like that to me.
These aren't *really* replacing map/filter/reduce because you're adding the new functions now, but the old-function removal is waiting until (forever?)
Even if Python 3000 comes out a while from now, why wait? Two more is not that much. Besides, it isn't like we are adding functions as some crazy rate. And Guido has stated that the 2.x branch stops once 2.9 (if it goes that long) comes out. So at worst you only have to worry about 5 more releases to worry. =) -Brett