On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 8:05 PM, Default User <hunguponcont...@gmail.com> wrote: > >From "the emperor's new clothes" department: > > 1) Why do Python lists start with element [0], instead of element [1]? > "Common sense" would seem to suggest that lists should start with [1].
(In addition to the other good answers already given) Well, "tradition" (originating from C) suggests otherwise. *Very* few languages use 1-based indexing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_programming_languages_(array)#Array_system_cross-reference_list > 2) In Python 3, why is print a function only, so that: print "Hello, World" > is not okay, but it must be print("Hello, World") instead? (Yeah, I know: > picky, picky . . . ) One less special case to learn; makes the language more regular and easier to learn. It also lets one write: f = lambda x: print(x) Which is not possible if print is a statement. Cheers, Chris -- http://blog.rebertia.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list