[Python-Dev] Re: Zen of Python

[Timothy Fitz]

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 09:03:30 +1000, Stephen Thorne
<stephen.thorne at gmail.com> wrote:
> "Flat is better than nested" has one foot in concise powerful
> programming, the other foot in optimisation.
> 
> foo.bar.baz.arr involves 4 hashtable lookups. arr is just one hashtable lookup.

I find it amazingly hard to believe that this is implying optimization
over functionality or clarity. There has to be another reason, yet I
can't think of any.