[Python-Dev] other "magic strings" issues

[Alex Martelli]

On Sunday 09 November 2003 11:54 pm, Delaney, Timothy C (Timothy) wrote:
   ...
> ascii_letters = sets.Set(ascii_letters)
>
> Hmm - we'd have the iterability, individual characters and speed, but lose
> iterating in order. I'm sure there's things out there that rely on
> iterating over ascii_letters in order ... ;)

Yes, that's my main use case -- presenting results to the user, so they need
to be in alphabetic order (ascii_lowercase actually, but it's much the same).

Anyway, Guido has already pronounced on such enhancements as "Too
Clever", so we have to keep ascii_lowercase &c as plain strings without any
enhancements and keep the "false positives" &c on 'in' checks.


Alex