[Python-ideas] slice.literal notation

[Nick Coghlan]

On 11 June 2015 at 22:57, Tal Einat <taleinat at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I actually think "subscript" is quite good a name. It makes the
> explicit distinction between subscripts, indexes and slices.

Yeah, I've warmed to it myself:

    zero = operator.subscript[0]

    ellipsis = operator.subscript[...]

    reverse = slice(None, None, -1)
    reverse = operator.subscript[::-1]

    all_rows_first_col = slice(None), slice(0)
    all_rows_first_col = operator.subscript[:, 0]

    first_row_all_cols_but_last = slice(0), slice(None, -1)
    first_row_all_cols_but_last = operator.subscript[0, :-1]

I realised the essential problem with using "item" in the name is that
the "item" in the method names refers to the *result*, not to the
input. Since the unifying term for the different kinds of input is
indeed "subscript" (covering indices, slices, multi-dimensional
slices, key lookups, content addressable data structures, etc), it
makes sense to just use it rather than inventing something new.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia