invert or reverse a string... warning this is a rant

[I V]

On Fri, 20 Oct 2006 09:04:07 +1000, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> I agree -- the reversed() function appears to be an obvious case of purity
> overriding practicality :(
> 
>>>> str(reversed("some string"))
> '<reversed object at 0xb7edca4c>'
>>>> repr(reversed("some string"))
> '<reversed object at 0xb7edca4c>'

This doesn't seem particularly "pure" to me, either. I would
have thought str(some_iter) should build a string out of the iterator, as
list(some_iter) or dict(some_iter) do. I guess this might have to wait for
Python 3, but str ought to be a proper string constructor, not a "produce
a printable representation of" function, particularly when we have repr to
do the latter.