Another Wart! string.find() [ was: namespace issue? ]
Michael Powe
michael at trollope.org
Sat Jun 23 14:37:50 EDT 2001
>>>>> "Tim" == Tim Peters <tim.one at home.com> writes:
Tim> [Chris Barker]
>> Returning -1 was an unfortunate choice for two reasons:
>> it is not a false value
>> it is a valid index into a string
Tim> Historical note: at the time these functions were designed,
Tim> negative indices were not allowed: sequence[negative_int]
Tim> raised an exception. Allowing the latter was a later
Tim> addition to the language, and was a mixed blessing (for this
Tim> and other reasons; but I think it was a net win).
>> This is all kind of useless discussion however as string.find
>> is in far too much code as it is.
Tim> Yup: learn to love it, or be killed <wink>.
Well, IIRC, the introduction of ANSI C broke some old implementations,
so precedent is there. Any such changes are simply likely to cause
implementations to be brought into compliance on a 'need' basis.
mp
--
Michael Powe Portland, Oregon USA
'Unless we approve your idea, it will not be permitted, it will not be
allowed.' -- Hilary Rosen, President, Recording Industry Association
of America
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