FWIW I'm fine with adding list.clear() to 3.3. On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 11:33 AM, Mike Meyer <mwm-keyword-python.b4bdba@mired.org> wrote:

On Tue, 23 Nov 2010 11:08:45 -0800 Chris Rebert <pyideas@rebertia.com> wrote:

...

Also, is it that common to treat such significantly differently collection types generically?

What's common - or at least not unknown - is for the changing nature of a problem to dictate that you change which collection type you're using. The more methods they share, the easier making that change is.

   <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>              http://www.mired.org/consulting.html Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.

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On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 5:16 PM, average <dreamingforward@gmail.com> wrote:

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 12:59 PM, Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> wrote:

...

FWIW I'm fine with adding list.clear() to 3.3.

How about calling it container.clear()?  ;^)

marcos

1) Because that's not how Python's type system works, and 2) Because many containers are immutable? Mike

On 2010-11-24, at 00:53 , average wrote:

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 3:18 PM, Mike Graham <mikegraham@gmail.com> wrote:

...

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 5:16 PM, average <dreamingforward@gmail.com> wrote:

...

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 12:59 PM, Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> wrote:

...

FWIW I'm fine with adding list.clear() to 3.3.

How about calling it container.clear()? ;^) marcos

1) Because that's not how Python's type system works, and 2) Because many containers are immutable?

That's a decent point. But in the case of a non-uniform container scheme and in absence of a obvious syntax to distinguish between mutable and immutable types, then it doesn't really make much sense to add the clear method to lists.... yet That's a pretty terrible point: sets have a .clear() method, frozensets don't. Dicts have a .clear() method, if functional maps were added to the language they probably wouldn't. Mutable collections have a .clear() method, immutable collections don't. You can only mix them (mutable and immutable methods) when reading them (in which case you don't care for the .clear() method anyway) so it's not like it matters.

FWIW I'm fine with adding list.clear() to 3.3. On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 11:33 AM, Mike Meyer <mwm-keyword-python.b4bdba@mired.org> wrote:

On Tue, 23 Nov 2010 11:08:45 -0800 Chris Rebert <pyideas@rebertia.com> wrote:

...

Also, is it that common to treat such significantly differently collection types generically?

What's common - or at least not unknown - is for the changing nature of a problem to dictate that you change which collection type you're using. The more methods they share, the easier making that change is.

   <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>              http://www.mired.org/consulting.html Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.

O< ascii ribbon campaign - stop html mail - www.asciiribbon.org _______________________________________________ Python-ideas mailing list Python-ideas@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas

-- --Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 5:16 PM, average <dreamingforward@gmail.com> wrote:

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 12:59 PM, Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> wrote:

...

FWIW I'm fine with adding list.clear() to 3.3.

How about calling it container.clear()?  ;^)

marcos

1) Because that's not how Python's type system works, and 2) Because many containers are immutable? Mike

On 2010-11-24, at 00:53 , average wrote:

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 3:18 PM, Mike Graham <mikegraham@gmail.com> wrote:

...

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 5:16 PM, average <dreamingforward@gmail.com> wrote:

...

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 12:59 PM, Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> wrote:

...

FWIW I'm fine with adding list.clear() to 3.3.

How about calling it container.clear()? ;^) marcos

1) Because that's not how Python's type system works, and 2) Because many containers are immutable?

That's a decent point. But in the case of a non-uniform container scheme and in absence of a obvious syntax to distinguish between mutable and immutable types, then it doesn't really make much sense to add the clear method to lists.... yet That's a pretty terrible point: sets have a .clear() method, frozensets don't. Dicts have a .clear() method, if functional maps were added to the language they probably wouldn't. Mutable collections have a .clear() method, immutable collections don't. You can only mix them (mutable and immutable methods) when reading them (in which case you don't care for the .clear() method anyway) so it's not like it matters.