[Python-Dev] PEP 303: Extend divmod() for Multiple Divisors

[Christian Tismer]

Raymond Hettinger wrote:
> [Tim]
> 
>>    TP> If we have to drop a builtin, I never liked reduce <wink>,
>>    TP> although Jeremy pointed out that its most common use case no
>>    TP> longer requires writing a lambda, or importing operator.add:
> 
> 
> [Barry]
> 
>>Hey, if we'll killing off builtins, I vote for apply().
> 
> 
> buffer() and intern() are two candidates for least understood,
> least used, and most likely not to be missed.

Hey, this is the positive response I was hoping for.
You got the point. We do have functions which might
perhaps not be dropped, but removed from C code.

There is also a side effect for apply(), for instance:
Controversely to divmod, apply is still found in 166
.py files of the 2.2 source dist. This is still more
than 10 %, although apply() can be completely replaced
by the new calling patterns.

I believe that in the code base of the average user,
this will look even worse, since nobody cares about
changing working code.

If we now quasi-deprecate apply by making it *slower*,
simply by replacing the C code by a Python function
that itself uses the new calling style, then we have
less C code, still compatibility, *and* a good argument
for everybody to replace apply by the new way to go.

ciao - chris

-- 
Christian Tismer             :^)   <mailto:tismer@tismer.com>
Mission Impossible 5oftware  :     Have a break! Take a ride on Python's
Johannes-Niemeyer-Weg 9a     :    *Starship* http://starship.python.net/
14109 Berlin                 :     PGP key -> http://wwwkeys.pgp.net/
work +49 30 89 09 53 34  home +49 30 802 86 56  pager +49 173 24 18 776
PGP 0x57F3BF04       9064 F4E1 D754 C2FF 1619  305B C09C 5A3B 57F3 BF04
      whom do you want to sponsor today?   http://www.stackless.com/