Ed Singleton wrote: > I'm a fairly average programmer (better than average compared to my > immediate colleagues). I've read every tutorial I can get my hands > on, but I have no _memory_ of ever coming across the del keyword, let > alone that it is fundamental to Python, and I have no idea what > collections school is. I doubtless have read of it at some point, but > as no importance has ever been attached to it, I have probably not > remembered it. > > Similarly, I remember slices simply because they are handy, not > because I have ever heard of them being fundamental before.
Ok, I can understand that, but I think that you really understand that the strength of a programming language such as Python is that it's like lego bricks. You have some basic pieces, and you can combine them to into something unique that does what you want. There are plenty of statements, operators, functions, types, modules and other things in Python already. I can well imagine that you had forgotten about del, and that you don't immediately think about slices when you wonder how to empty a list. It's like when I build lego with my son. I guess he has around 2000 pieces, and it's not always easy to spot what you need. It was difficult enough when I was a kid. Now there are so many different kinds of pieces, shaped to fulfil some niche usecase. One thing that I'm sure of is this: Making more kinds of odd-shaped "pieces", especially prepared to solve the specific problem I'm facing right now, won't make it easier to understand or use Python in the long run. I've used Python for almost 10 years now, and I still learn new things, and I sometimes come across things that I once new but had forgotten. It might work for a while to add a new convenience function as soon as someone finds that they don't immediately now how to solve a certain problem. It's my impression that that's pretty much the idea with PHP. It's not Python though. PHP is only successful in a fairly narrow (if important) niche, it has failed in getting used outside its niche, and I assume we'll see a decline in its use one the web pretty soon, just as it happened with Perl. (Whether RoR, something Python based or something entirely new will replace it is beyond my radar screen though.) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
