[Python-Dev] timsort for jython

[Tim Peters]

[Eric S Raymond, breaking a too-long silence]
> ...
> I think the right answer is to leave find() as it is and have a different
> notation that returns bool.  How about `a in b' whenever a and b are
> both string-valued?  Seems the most natural candidate.

I want to raise one other issue here:  should

    '' in 'xyz'

return True or raise an exception?  I've been burned, e.g., by

    >>> 'xyz'.startswith('')
    True
    >>>

when '' was computed by an expression that didn't "expect to" reduce to
nothingness, and I expect *everyone* here has been saved more than once by
that

    '' in 'xyz'

currently raises an exception.  If we make __contains__ act like

    'xyz'.find('') >= 0

that (very probable) error will pass silently in the future:

    >>> 'xyz'.find('')
    0
    >>>

IOW, do we follow find() rigidly, or retain "str1 in str2"'s current
behavior when str1 is empty?