for_some(), for_all()?

[Alex Martelli]

Raymond Hettinger <vze4rx4y at verizon.net> wrote:

> [Michele Simionato]
> > I always wondered why "any" and "all" are given as recipes but are not
> > part of the itertools module. What is the rationale?
> > I think they are so common that they deserve to be in the module.
> > At least, we would have standard names.
> 
> Random thoughts on itertools recipes and module design:

  [snipped lots of valuable considerations]

and one more, specific thing...: 'any' and 'all', like (say) other
potentially useful functions such as count, average, etc, are
_accumulators_ -- they _consume_ an iterator, producing a 'scalar'
result.

itertools is about filters and producers -- calling itertools.whatever
_returns_ an iterator.

I'd like a small module of accumulators.  But putting accumulators into
itertools is the wrong placing.  A general rule that helps users
remember what-goes-where, such as 'itertools stuff returns iterators',
is too precious to throw away lightly, IMHO.


Alex