Pythonic way to sum n-th list element?

[Alex Martelli]

Steve Holden wrote:

> "Alex Martelli" <aleax at aleax.it> wrote in message
> news:3japa.44301$LB6.997057 at news1.tin.it...
> 
> [why Tim and Guido are dead good ...]
   ...
>> & (                      # conditions for a weak-notrump opener
>>     s ( 1 g 4  3  3  3   # shape 4333 (any), or...
>>         2 g 4  4  3  2   #       4432 (any), or...
>>         3   3- 3- 3- 5   #       5332 w 5 clubs, or...
>>         4   3- 3- 5  3-  #       5332 w 5 diamonds;
>>       )
>>     < ( 11                    # moreover, a 12-14 range for
>>         \+ SHDC c( 4 3 2 1 0) # normal Milton-Work point-count
>>         15
>>       )
>>   )
>>
>> There -- aren't you glad I don't do language design any more?-)
> 
> On this evidence it's arguable that you never did! This language was
> *designed*?

Well yes.  Got anything against prefix-notation?  I just found it
marginally easier to parse FUNC ( ARGUMENTS ) than (FUNC ARGUMENTS),
otherwise it would have been a bit more Lisp-ish in terms of syntax.

\FUNC <suits> <expression> "scans" the expression over the suits
(Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, in this case) and "reduces" the
tuple of results by passing them as ARGUMENTS to the given FUNC --
making this somewhat germane to the thread's Subject;-)... it IS
rather like reduce(func, [expr(suit) for suit in suits]), except,
more compact because that's such a common construct in evaluating
a bridge hand;-).


> but-anyway-let's-all-be-grateful-for-python-ly y'rs  - steve

Hmmm, yes, definitely, let's;-).


Alex