On Tue, 11 Jun 2013 08:22:19 -0700, Rick Johnson wrote: > On Monday, June 10, 2013 9:56:43 PM UTC-5, Steven D'Aprano wrote: >> On Mon, 10 Jun 2013 20:14:55 -0400, Terry Jan Reedy wrote:
>> > Reading further, one sees that the function works with two lists, a >> > list of file names, unfortunately called 'list', and a list of >> > subdirectories, more sensibly call 'subdirs'. >> >> Yes, that is a poor choice of names. But sometimes you are dealing with >> a generic list, and calling it "filenames" would be equally >> inappropriate :-) > > I agree, however hopefully you're joking, because in the past you've > argued that programmers should never use variables as generic as "list", > "string", "integer", "float", etc... even though there are instances > when all you need to know is what type your working with. Do you have a reference for me saying that one should NEVER use generic names? That doesn't sound like something I would say. Sometimes you're writing a generic function that operates on a generic variable in a generic fashion, so of course you should use a generic name. > One of the most important side-effects of using an editor with > colorizing capabilities is to show you that you're using a built-in or > keyword as a variable! I wouldn't exactly call it a "side-effect", since distinguishing tokens in your source code by category is the whole purpose of colouring source code in the first place. > I love when people comment on subjects they have > no direct experience with, like for instance, you commenting on > colonizers or GUI's -- LOL! I must admit I have no experience with colonizers, although of course I do have a colon of my very own. It works away absorbing water and nutrients without my active supervision. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list