Steven D'Aprano wrote: > On Tue, 07 Mar 2006 12:26:00 -0800, James Stroud wrote: > > >>John Salerno wrote: >> >>>Diez B. Roggisch wrote: >>> >>> >>>>Why don't you just _try_ that? It would have been way faster than to ask >>>>questions you can easily answer yourself. >>> >>> >>>I did try it, but I was still hoping for an explanation, which I've also >>>gotten from you guys, some in nicer terms than others. >> >>People who answer questions on this list have forgotten how unintuitive >>intuitive can be. In other words, they have found that the intuitive way >>to do things in python is usually the right way, which may not be the >>case in other languages. Thus, your instinct to see if your instincts >>are correct rings as laziness here, when in fact you are just being >>rigorous. > > > Not rigorous. Perhaps thorougher. > > Had the OP worded the question more rigorously, we wouldn't be having this > argument: > > "I wanted to see what happens if you try to insert a list into a list > using slicing, and discovered that this works: > > L[2:2] = [ [1,2,3] ] > > Now I don't understand the reasoning behind this. Can somebody explain the > rationale between needing to wrap objects in a list in order to insert > using slices?" > > To which the answer would be, so it is consistent with other slice > assignment: > > L[2:10] = [1, 2, 3, 4] > > Retrieving a slice returns a list. Assigning to a slice requires a list. > Making an exception for the special case of L[x:x] goes against > the philosophy of the Python language: Python generally doesn't accept > that special cases are special enough to break the rules. > > Half the battle is asking the right question. The other half of the battle > is asking the right question in the right way. > > > And the third half of the battle is focusing on keeping everybody moving forward, approximately together. Let's move on now, nothing to see here ;-)
regards Steve -- Steve Holden +44 150 684 7255 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC/Ltd www.holdenweb.com Love me, love my blog holdenweb.blogspot.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list