[Python-Dev] PEP 372 -- Adding an ordered directory to collections ready for pronouncement

[Nick Coghlan]

Dennis Benzinger wrote:
> I'd prefer encoding the order in the class name, therefore I suggest
> (Ins|Insertion)(Order|Ordered)Dict, e.g. InsOrderDict. Abbreviating the
> first group to simply I probably is too confusing because of the use of
> I as a prefix for interfaces.

Except I just don't see this proliferation of dict types with different
sort orders ever happening.

The distinction between OrderedDict and dict is that the order of
keys()/values()/items() isn't arbitrary the way it is in a regular dict
- there's a defined order that will always be used. That's all the name
tells you - if someone assumes they know what that ordering is without
actually looking at the documentation (and gets it wrong as a result),
then I don't see how that is any different from the fact that someone
might mistakenly assume that list.sort() puts the items in descending
order instead of ascending order.

For other sort orders, it seems far more likely to me that a
collections.SortedMap type would be added at some point in the future
that accepts a key function like the one accepted by sorted() and
list.sort(). Such a data type would make different trade-offs between
insertion, deletion and lookup speeds than those made in the hash map
based OrderedDict.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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