[Python-ideas] list.sort with a int or str key

[Daniel Stutzbach]

list.sort, sorted, and similar methods currently have a "key" argument that
accepts a callable.  Often, that leads to code looking like this:

mylist.sort(key=lambda x: x[1])
myotherlist.sort(key=lambda x: x.length)

I would like to propose that the "key" parameter be generalized to accept
str and int types, so the above code could be rewritten as follows:

mylist.sort(key=1)
myotherlist.sort(key='length')

I find the latter to be much more readable.  As a bonus, performance for
those cases would also improve.
--
Daniel Stutzbach <http://stutzbachenterprises.com>
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