My python annoyances so far

[Steven Howe]

flifus at gmail.com wrote:
>> Well, why do some things in the library have to be functions, and
>> other things have to be class methods?
>>     
Perhaps because some things are more naturally function like? For 
'instance' (pardon the pun), functions shouldn't retain data. They 
perform an operation, return data and quit. While retaining data is a 
feature of an class/instance.

If I'm looking up the time of day in L.A., why do I need the whole clock 
database of times including New York and London?

Another example are with respect to  'int' and 'float' operations. Why 
should int(x) be a class? Did you want to save and operate on the value 
of x again? No, you want the integer portion of x. Ditto float(x); 
somebody input '5' but you want it clear it 5.0. You typecast it your 
way. But the float operation doesn't need to retain the last input, nor 
even exist after it's last use. So, without have any current values 
referenced inside 'float', garbage collection can recover the memory 
space of 'float'.

And before someone get's all technical, I know everything in Python is 
an 'object' even None, which implies class, or is it the other way around?

sph