Bug or feature? 'abc'.split('') rejects empty separator

[Bengt Richter]

 >>> 'abc'.startswith('')
 1
 >>> 'abc'.endswith('')
 1
 >>> 'abc'.find('')
 0
 >>> 'abc'.rfind('')
 3
 >>> 'abc'.find('',1)
 1

AND:

 >>> z=list('abc')
 >>> z
 ['a', 'b', 'c']
 >>> ''.join(z)
 'abc'

BUT:

 >>> 'abc'.split('')
 Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
 ValueError: empty separator

Wouldn't it make sense to return list('abc') ?

or, ugly, but consistent with *find results
(finding the separator front, back, and between all):

 >>> ';a;b;c;'.split(';')
 ['', 'a', 'b', 'c', '']

Regards,
Bengt Richter