Why is CGI module so complicated?

[Ian Clarke]

> What about simply adding a __str__ method to these objects?
> That way for printing and '%s'%(object) substitution you get the "simple"
> response of returning the (likely de-escaped) string value stored in the
> field. Similarly, add a "list" method to get the values as a list (possibly
> of length one) (is there a special method name that the built-in list
> function calls? I could not find it.)

I think this is an excellent idea... can anyone see any problems with
it?

I think what we are trying to do here is retain the flexibility of the
current method, but prevent the more sophisticated functionality from
making it more difficult to do simple stuff (like, access a text field).

Ian.