[Python-Dev] Proof of the pudding: str.partition()

[Charles Cazabon]

Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
> On 8/31/05, Charles Cazabon <python at discworld.dyndns.org> wrote:
> 
> > While I'm at it, why not propose that for py3k that
> > .rfind/.rindex/.rjust/.rsplit disappear, and .find/.index/.just/.split
> > grow an optional "fromright" (or equivalent) optional keyword argument?
> 
> This violates one of my design principles:

Ah, excellent response.  Are your design principles written down anywhere?  I
didn't see anything on your essays page about them, but I'd like to learn at
the feet of the BDFL.

> don't add boolean options to an API that control the semantics in such a way
> that the option value is (nearly) always a constant. Instead, provide two
> different method names.

Hmmm.  I really dislike the additional names, but ...

> The motivation for this rule comes partly for performance: parameters
> are relatively expensive, and you shouldn't make the method test
> dynamically for a parameter value that is constant for the call site;

I can see this. 

> and partly from readability: don't bother the reader with having to
> remember the full general functionality and how it is affected by the
> various flags;

This I don't think is so bad.  It's analogous to providing the "reverse"
parameter to sorted et al, and I don't think that's particularly hard to
remember.  It would also be rarely used; I use find/index tens of times more
often than I use rfind/rindex, and I presume it would be the same for a
hypothetical .part/.rpart.

> also, a Boolean positional argument is a really poor clue about its meaning,
> and it's easy to misremember the sense reversed.

I totally agree.  I therefore borrowed the time machine and modified my
proposal to suggest it should be a keyword argument, not a positional one :).

> PS. This is a special case of a stronger design principle: don't let
> the *type* of the return value depend on the *value* of the arguments.

Hmmm.  In all of these cases, the type of the return value is constant.  Only
the value would change based on the value of the arguments.   ... ?

Charles
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Cazabon                           <python at discworld.dyndns.org>
GPL'ed software available at:               http://pyropus.ca/software/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------