basic questions on cmp, < and sort

[Schüle Daniel]

Hello,

first question

In [117]: cmp("ABC",['A','B','C'])
Out[117]: 1

against what part of the list is the string "ABC" compared?

second question

In [119]: class X(object):
    .....:     pass
    .....:

In [120]: X() < X()
Out[120]: True

In [121]: X() < X()
Out[121]: False

In [122]: X() < X()
Out[122]: True

In [123]: X() < X()
Out[123]: True

In [124]: X() < X()
Out[124]: False

class X does not implement < and cmp
what is this comparision is based on?

third question

sort([[1,2,3],["ABC"],['Z','A'], X(), 4)

how does python handle heterogenous items in the list
in this case?

first I assumed that cmp function used in sort
is based on len, when the items are sequences, but this is wrong

Regards, Daniel