General question about Python design goals

[Fredrik Lundh]

Christoph Zwerschke wrote:

>> Christoph Zwerschke wrote:
>> now, I'm no expert on data structures for chess games, but I find it hard to
>> believe that any chess game implementer would use a data structure that re-
>> quires linear searches for everything...
>
> Using linear arrays to represent chess boards is pretty common in
> computer chess. Often, the array is made larger than 64 elements to make
> sure moves do not go off the board but hit unbeatable pseudo pieces
> standing around the borders. But in principle, linear arrays of that
> kind are used, and for good reasons.

really?  a quick literature search only found clever stuff like bitboards,
pregenerated move tables, incremental hash algorithms, etc.  the kind
of stuff you'd expect from a problem domain like chess.

> I already feared that a discussion about the details and efficiency of
> this implementation would follow. But this was not the point here.

so pointing out that the use case you provided has nothing to do with
reality is besides the point ?  you're quickly moving into kook-country
here.

</F>