Guido van Rossum wrote:
...
For strings there is no compact notation like "+0.0" if you want to convert to string or Unicode -- adding "" might work in Perl, but not in Python.
Actually, these days, foo+"" works in a LOT of languages. Perl, Java and JavaScript for sure. C++, depending on the type. Python's strictness about this issue has never caught a bug for me. It has only caused errors. Okay, some newbie may think that "5"+"5"=="10". But they could also expect [5]+[5]==[10]. There are limits to the extent that we can protect them from incorrect mental models. -- Paul Prescod - Not encumbered by corporate consensus Pop stars come and pop stars go, but amid all this change there is one eternal truth: Whenever Bob Dylan writes a song about a guy, the guy is guilty as sin. - http://www.nj.com/page1/ledger/e2efc7.html