[Python-ideas] Counter comparison

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Mon, 24 Nov 2014 12:37:39 -0500
random832 at fastmail.us wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 24, 2014, at 10:43, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> > But does it matter? If you've got a list of sets, and you want it sorted,
> > you have to specify how you want it sorted anyways. You can complain that
> > <
> > is only a partial order, but that is the mathematical root of the
> > situation, not a problem caused by an poorly chosen language default.
> > (Leaving < undefined and sorting by object address, now *that* would be
> > an
> > example of the latter. :-)
> 
> You seem to be suggesting that sorting a list of partially ordered items
> is not a meaningful thing to ask for, rather than merely not being
> implemented by the list.sort method.

Since list.sort is guaranteed to be stable, the sort order should
ideally be deterministic even in the face of partial ordering.

Regards

Antoine.