Raymond Hettinger wrote:

...

I have no great problem with leaving the a, b, *c = L idea unPEPed if there is interest in leaving the idea 'open', though.

Yes. I would like to have it left open.

OK, here's what I'll do in the next draft of the proposed PEP (PEPP?): 1. Add a discussion of the advantages of iunpack over islice: - guaranteed minimum length (handy for use with tuple unpacking) - return the iterator as the final object (this is nicer when the original object is an iterable, rather than an iterator - e.g. a list or tuple) 2. Summarise the use cases as given by the previous proponents of the "a, b, *c = S" syntax. 3. Soften the PEP's language regarding the "a, b *c = S" syntax. Point out that this is a way to get the functionality in a fairly easy to spell form for 2.5 that doesn't require changing Python's syntax. itertools.iunpack could serve as a reference for defining the behaviour of that syntax at a later date. I find the following to be rather readable: a, b, itr = iunpack(S, 2) "iunpack" is also easy to look up in the documentation index. If Carlos is amenable, I'll add him as a co-author on the PEP - after all, he's the one who sold *me* on the idea of iunpack, and most of the points defending it are originally his. Cheers, Nick. -- Nick Coghlan | Brisbane, Australia Email: ncoghlan@email.com | Mobile: +61 409 573 268