Python's biggest compromises

[John Roth]

"Anthony_Barker" <anthony_barker at hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:899f842.0307310555.56134f71 at posting.google.com...
> I have been reading a book about the evolution of the Basic
> programming language. The author states that Basic - particularly
> Microsoft's version is full of compromises which crept in along the
> language's 30+ year evolution.
>
> What to you think python largest compromises are?

I'm not sure if we've beaten this one to death or not, but a real
example of a compromise just floated through my head.

Consider <list>.sort() and <list>.reverse(). These two otherwise
admirable methods don't return the object, so they can't be chained.
Why not? Because they update the list in place, and Guido decided
that not returning the object was a cheap way to make it clear that
they were doing something unusual.

Now, *that's* a compromise. The worst of both worlds.

John Roth