Pythonification of the asterisk-based collection packing/unpacking syntax

[Chris Angelico]

On Sun, Dec 18, 2011 at 2:03 PM, Evan Driscoll <edriscoll at wisc.edu> wrote:
> Sorry, I just subscribed to the list so am stepping in mid-conversation,

Welcome to the list! If you're curious as to what's happened, check
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> Something like ML or Haskell, which does not even allow integer to
> double promotions, is very strong typing. Something like Java, which
> allows some arithmetic conversion and also automatic stringification (a
> la "1" + 1) is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Personally I'd
> put Python even weaker on account of things such as '[1,2]*2' and '1 <
> True' being allowed, but on the other hand it doesn't allow "1"+1.

But [1,2]*2 is operator overloading. The language doesn't quietly
convert [1,2] into a number and multiply that by 2, it keeps it as a
list and multiplies the list by 2.

Allowing 1 < True is weaker typing. It should be noted, however, that
"1 < True" is False, and "1 > True" is also False. The comparison
doesn't make much sense, but it's not an error.

ChrisA