[Python-3000] Python 3000 Status Update (Long!)

[Bill Janssen]

> Multiple additions (with "+") mean "sum" in
> arithmetic, but you can't generalize that to strings
> and text processing.  The "+" operator for any two
> strings is not about adding--it's about
> joining/concatenating.  So multiple applications of
> "+" on strings aren't a sum.  They're just a longer
> join/concatenation. 

Hmmm.  Your argument would be more pursuasive if you couldn't do this
in Python:

>>> a = "abc" + "def" + "ghi" + "jkl"
>>> a
'abcdefghijkl'
>>> 

The real problem with "sum", I think, is that the parameter list is
ill-conceived (perhaps because it was added before variable length
parameter lists were?).  It should be

  sum(*operands)

not

  sum(operands, initialvalue=?)

It should amount to "map(+, operands)".

Bill