[Python-Dev] string representation of range in 3.0

[Brad Miller]

On Apr 16, 2008, at 5:15 AM, Armin Rigo wrote:

> Hi Greg,
>
> On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 03:34:44PM +1200, Greg Ewing wrote:
>>> That's why I proposed <0, 1, ..., 9> for repr(range(10)).
>>
>> My worry is that this will lead a newcomer into thinking
>> this is some kind of valid expression syntax.
>
> What about the less confusing and more readily generalizable:
>
>   <range object 0, 1, ..., 9>
>
> It would also be helpful IMHO to use this kind of repr for most  
> built-in
> iterators and iterables, instead of their mosty-useless default repr.
>

I think this is a great compromise.  It is much more helpful to the  
beginner than range(0,10).  This would also be a very simple change to  
the patch I already made :-)

I think it works nicely for the dict_keys, dict_values, and dict_items  
objects also as the student will see:

<dict_items object ('a', 1), ('b', 2), ... >

This reinforces that they will be iterating over tuples, which is much  
more helpful than a hexadecimal address.

Since ordering is not important for dictionary objects I wonder  
whether the ending value(s) are even needed or whether the first two  
are enough to help the student get an idea of what the object contains.

Brad


>
> A bientot,
>
> Armin.
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