[Python-Dev] PEP 372 -- Adding an ordered directory to collections ready for pronouncement

[Gisle Aas]

On Mar 4, 2009, at 9:01 , Glenn Linderman wrote:

> On approximately 3/3/2009 11:22 PM, came the following characters  
> from the keyboard of Raymond Hettinger:
>>>> Perhaps the terminology should be
>>>>
>>>>  ordereddict -- what we have here
>>>>
>>>>  sorteddict -- hypothetical future type that keeps
>>>>                itself sorted in key order
>> +1
>
> -1
>
> Introducing the hypothetical sorteddict would serve to reduce the  
> likelihood of ordereddict being interpreted as sorteddict among the  
> small percentage of people that actually read the two lines that  
> might mention it in the documentation, but wouldn't significantly  
> aid the intuition of people who first encounter it in someone else's  
> code.
>
> And without an implementation, it would otherwise be documentation  
> noise, not signal.

Instead of introducing a sorteddict I would instead suggest that the  
future should bring an odict with a sort method; possibly also  
keys_sorted and items_sorted methods.

I think this would simplify things and putting these methods into the  
odict documentation makes it clearer how it actually behaves for  
people that just scan the method index to get an impression of what  
the object is about.

Regards,
Gisle