[Python-Dev] Re: string.find() again (was Re: timsort for jython)

[Ka-Ping Yee]

On Tue, 6 Aug 2002, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> I think we've argued about '' in 'abc' long enough.  Tim has failed to
> convince me, so '' in 'abc' returns True.  Barry has checked it all
> in.

I would like to urge putting the brakes on this one and proceeding more
cautiously.  (I've been away for the past couple of days and missed the
discussion on this issue.)

My personal opinion sides with Tim -- i think an exception is definitely
the right choice.  (I still haven't seen convincing examples where True
is a more useful result than an exception, and the fact that there is
doubt suggests that it is an exceptional case.)

But regardless of that opinion, we should recognize that causing
'' in 'abc' to stop raising an exception is a big change -- a more
gentle introduction, with at least some sort of warning, would be better.
Silent errors are bad.


-- ?!ng