On Mon, 24 Nov 2014 12:37:39 -0500 random832@fastmail.us wrote:
On Mon, Nov 24, 2014, at 10:43, Guido van Rossum wrote:
But does it matter? If you've got a list of sets, and you want it sorted, you have to specify how you want it sorted anyways. You can complain that < is only a partial order, but that is the mathematical root of the situation, not a problem caused by an poorly chosen language default. (Leaving < undefined and sorting by object address, now *that* would be an example of the latter. :-)
You seem to be suggesting that sorting a list of partially ordered items is not a meaningful thing to ask for, rather than merely not being implemented by the list.sort method.
Since list.sort is guaranteed to be stable, the sort order should ideally be deterministic even in the face of partial ordering. Regards Antoine.