[Python-Dev] Fwd: Problem withthe API for str.rpartition()

[Barry Warsaw]

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On Sep 5, 2006, at 1:46 PM, Raymond Hettinger wrote:

>> ISTM this is just begging for newbie (and maybe not-so-newbie)   
>> confusion.  Why not just document both as returning (left, sep,   
>> right) which seems the most obvious description of what the  
>> methods  return?
>
>
> I'm fine with that (though it's a little sad that we think the  
> rather basic concepts of head and tail are beyond the grasp of  
> typical pythonistas).
>
> Changing to left/sep/right will certainly disambiguate questions  
> about the ordering of the return tuple.  OTOH, there is some small  
> loss in that the head/tail terminology is highly suggestive of how  
> to use the function when making succesive partitions.

Personally, I'd rather the docstring be clear and concise rather than  
suggestive of use cases.  IMO, the latter would be better served as  
an example in the latex documentation.

- -Barry

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