How does compare work?

[Aahz]

In article <4016A368.9050806 at skynet.be>,
Helmut Jarausch  <jarausch at skynet.be> wrote:
>
>First let me say that IMHO this is a big misdesign of Python.

Guido has come around to this POV.  However, being able to compare
different types does have some defensibility.  Your example of an ``if``
isn't directly relevant; what's more important is the question of
sorting a list containing arbitrary information.  This is particularly
true for the case of something like extracting keys from a dict -- you
don't want an exception raised.

What may well happen is that sort comparisons get a different set of
special methods than relational operators.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"The joy of coding Python should be in seeing short, concise, readable
classes that express a lot of action in a small amount of clear code -- 
not in reams of trivial code that bores the reader to death."  --GvR