[Python-Dev] OOps (was: No 1.6! (was Re: A REALLY COOL PYTHON FEATURE:))

[Ka-Ping Yee]

On Thu, 18 May 2000, Tim Peters wrote:
> There may be some hope in that the "for/in" protocol is now conflated with
> the __getitem__ protocol, so if Python grows a more general iteration
> protocol, perhaps we could back away from the sequenceness of strings
> without harming "for" iteration over the characters ...

But there's no way we can back away from

    spam = eggs[hack:chop] + ham[slice:dice]

on strings.  It's just too ideal.

Perhaps eventually the answer will be a character type?

Or perhaps no change at all.  I've not had the pleasure of running
into these problems with characters-being-strings before, even though
your survey of the various gotchas now makes that kind of surprising.


-- ?!ng

"Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember."
    -- Oscar Levant