Sorting out sort (Re: Python vs. Ruby)

[John Roth]

"Anders J. Munch" <andersjm at dancontrol.dk> wrote in message
news:3e143ffa$0$71611$edfadb0f at dread11.news.tele.dk...
> "Rob Renaud" <rpgnmets at aol.com> wrote in message
> news:3759308d.0301011401.4b32deba at posting.google.com...
> > <lot snipped>
> > "John Roth" <johnroth at ameritech.net> wrote in message
> > > Whether append() returns a *new* object or not is irrelevant to
> > > my arguement. The fact that it returns None is the wart.
> > >
> > > John Roth
> >
> > It's consistant, not a wart from my perspective.  If an object is
> > modified, it is not returned.
> >
> > For every part of the (admittedly small) python library I know, that
> > is the case.  Returning None is a hint that the object is modified.
> >
> > So then the question becomes, why don't append(), sort(), reverse()
> > return a new list and not modify the original?  Are mutable objects
> > themselves a wart on the langauge?
>
> As others have answered, for performance reasons.  All in all, the
> design choices for list's sort method make perfect sense.
>
> I do miss a true functional sort though.  More often than not,
> performance is not that critical, and a functional sort would allow
> simpler, clearer code.
>
> Fortunately it's easy to write one yourself:
>
> def sort(sequence, cmpfunc=None):
>     """sort a sequence, returning a new list; if given,
cmpfunc(x,y) -> -1, 0,
> 1"""
>     sorted = list(sequence)
>     if cmpfunc is None:
>         sorted.sort()
>     else:
>         sorted.sort(cmpfunc)
>     return sorted
>
>
> How about adding this to the library somewhere?

This version unfortunately doesn't allow chained application. - it's
purely
a functional version. It shouldn't be all that hard to subclass list to
add
.sorted() and .reversed() methods, though.

John Roth
>
> my-preference-would-be-as-a-builtin-ly y'rs, Anders
>
>