On Wed, Nov 25, 2015 at 5:52 PM, Random832 <random...@fastmail.com> wrote: > On 2015-11-25, Ben Finney <ben+pyt...@benfinney.id.au> wrote: >> That is, the ‘2’ in ‘cartesian_point = (2, 3)’ means something different >> than in ‘cartesian_point = (3, 2)’. >> >> Whereas the ‘2’ in ‘test_scores = [2, 3]’ means exactly the same as in >> ‘test_scores = [3, 2]’. >> >> If each position in the sequence gives the value there a different >> menaning, use a tuple; if not, use a list. > > I don't think that's really right. The absence of first-class > multisets in python does mean that lists get "abused" for that > purpose, but I don't think that means that there's no legitimate > use-case for a list (i.e. a mutable sequence in which position is > significant). > > The difference between a tuple and a list is that one is mutable > and the other is not. The difference you are describing is > between a list and a multiset (or a tuple and an immutable > multiset).
I think that Ben was actually trying to make a distinction between heterogeneity and homogeneity of the contents, not a distinction of whether the collection was ordered or not. You can of course have a homogeneous collection for which order is still important, e.g. a batting line-up. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
