Tuples, what are they: read-only lists or heterogeneous data arrays?

[Gerrit Holl]

Guido van Rossum wrote in Python-Dev:
> Tuples are for heterogeneous data, list are for homogeneous data.
> Tuples are *not* read-only lists.

This makes me wonder.

FAQ entry 6.15 states:

> 6.15. Why are there separate tuple and list data types?
> This is done so that tuples can be immutable while lists are mutable.

I don't understand. Doesn't this FAQ entry mean that tuples are read-only
lists? Why are tuples not read-only lists? Lists are for homogeneous data?
Well, [0, None, "twelve"] is perfectly legal, of course, so what does this
mean? I'm curious!

yours,
Gerrit.

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