Perl is worse!
Martijn Faassen
m.faassen at vet.uu.nl
Fri Jul 28 16:41:31 EDT 2000
Steve Lamb <grey at despair.rpglink.com> wrote:
[snip]
> Ah, but getting back to that point I said to remember.
> foo = "a"
> foo = list(foo)
> foo is not ['a']. It took a single element and made it a list. So we now
> know that a single element has a sequence. Here is another sequence of a
> single element.
> foo = 1
> foo = list(foo)
> Error. Single element sequence. Remember, any sequence can either be a
> single value or a sequence. Yet here we have a single value denied. Quirks
> abound.
Ahum, now watch this:
foo = 1
foo = foo + 1
foo is now 2. So, '+ 1' takes a single integer and makes it the number 2. So
now we know that a single integer is turned into 2 that way. Here's another
integer:
foo = 3
foo = foo + 1
Foo is now 4! But we just determined + 1 turned something into 2, right? :)
Your reasoning is faulty. In Python, a string is a sequence. That's why
list("a") works. It turns a string sequence of characters into a list
sequence of characters (or strings, in fact, as characters and strings
are the same in Python).
Please, do find the inconsistencies and quirks of Python _where they
actually are_. Most of what you're finding *is* consistent and is not
a quirk. It's merely different than what you're used to. The only
real quirk you found is None = 1, and even that is a consequence of
a consistency.
Regards,
Martijn
--
History of the 20th Century: WW1, WW2, WW3?
No, WWW -- Could we be going in the right direction?
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