List to string? Docstrings?
Skip Montanaro
skip at mojam.com
Mon Sep 13 18:02:35 EDT 1999
François> 1) For converting a string into a list, I used:
François> chars = list(text)
François> For getting back the string from the list, I tried:
François> import operator
François> text = reduce(operator.concat, chars)
The normal idiom for smashing a list into a string is
import string
text = string.join(chars, "")
but your method is just as effective. The operator module and the reduce
builtin function are new additions to Python relative to the string module.
I think that would explain why most people use string.join instead of your
solution.
François> 2) I still miss the purpose of __doc__ strings. It's true
François> that I can write:
François> print module.__doc__
François> print function.__doc__
François> and sometimes get useful information from these. But what
François> would I be loosing, for my own things, if I was using mere
François> `#' comments instead?
Only that you deny other programs the opportunity to present you with useful
information. For example, IDLE could presumably import a module and display
an object's doc string in a popup window if you asked for it. It couldn't
do that with comments. Similarly, batch-oriented documentation tools can
assemble a bunch of doc strings together into a more-or-less cohesive whole
based upon traversing a module's dict recursively, emitting the whole mess
as HTML, LaTex, nroff or what-have-you. There is a tool floating around
called gendoc that does this sort of thing I believe.
Skip Montanaro | http://www.mojam.com/
skip at mojam.com | http://www.musi-cal.com/~skip/
847-971-7098 | Python: Programming the way Guido indented...
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