[Python-Dev] A Horrible Inconsistency

[Tim Peters]

[Fredrik]
>  >>> -1 * (1, 2, 3)
> ()
>  >>> -(1, 2, 3)
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>    File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
> TypeError: bad operand type for unary -
>
> We Really Need To Fix This!

What's broken?  It's generally true that

    n*s == s*n == empty_container_of_type_type(s)

whenever s is a sequence and n is an integer <= 0.  The above is just
an instance of that.  See footnote 2 in Library Ref section 2.3.6
Sequence Types.