Comparisons of incompatible types

[Tim Chase]

On 12/08/2010 03:47 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> Or a list that needs to be presented to a human reader in some arbitrary
> but consistent order.
>
> Or a doctest that needs to show the keys in a dict:
>
>      >>>  d = myfunction()
>      >>>  sorted(d.keys())
>      ['ham', 'spam', 42, None]
>
[snip]
>
> Agreed, but in hindsight I think it would be better if there was a
> separate lexicographic sort function, that guaranteed to sort anything
> (including such unorderable values as complex numbers!), without relying
> on the vagaries of the standard comparison operators.

wouldn't that be something like

   sorted(mixedstuff, key=str)

or if all you need is a stable order regardless of what that 
order is, one could even get away with:

   sorted(mixedstuff, key=id)

-tkc