itertools to iter transition (WAS: Pre-PEP: Dictionary accumulator methods)

[David Eppstein]

In article <mailman.967.1112032612.1799.python-list at python.org>,
 Jack Diederich <jack at performancedrivers.com> wrote:

> I only included making iter a type to make it more symmetric with str
> being a type.  iter is currently a function, as a practical matter I wouldn't
> mind if it doubled as a namespace but that might make others flinch.

iter having the attributes currently residing as methods in itertools 
sounds just fine to me.

I really don't like iter as a type instead of a function, though.  It 
sounds like a cool idea at first glance, but then you think about it and 
realize that (unlike what happens with any class name) iter(x) is almost 
never going to return an object of that type.

-- 
David Eppstein
Computer Science Dept., Univ. of California, Irvine
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/