len() should always return something

[Robert Kern]

On 2009-07-25 02:55, Diez B. Roggisch wrote:
> Dr. Phillip M. Feldman schrieb:
>> Here's a simple-minded example:
>>
>> def dumbfunc(xs):
>> for x in xs:
>> print x
>>
>> This function works fine if xs is a list of floats, but not if it is
>> single
>> float. It can be made to work as follows:
>>
>> def dumbfunc(xs):
>> if isinstance(xs,(int,float,complex)): xs= [xs]
>> for x in xs:
>> print x
>>
>> Having to put such extra logic into practically every function is one
>> of the
>> annoying things about Python.
>
> And where comes "len(xs)" into play here? What you want is iteration
> over scalars.

He explained in another post that iteration is another feature along the same 
lines that he would want for scalars.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
  that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
  an underlying truth."
   -- Umberto Eco