"a better input"

[Alex Martelli]

Alexis Layton wrote:
        ...
> What about allowing the following behavior for a "safe" input:
>    read a line
>    trim whitespace on both sides

No need to do that for the following step (only before you return the
string, if then).

>    attempt to parse the string as a Python boolean, integer, real, or
> complex* literal
>    otherwise return a the string
> 
> *I realize there are no true complex literals, we'd have to do a little
> extra work here

What extra work?

>>> complex('23+45j')
(23+45j)
>>>


Alex