convert list of tuples into several lists

[Peter Hansen]

Nick Coghlan wrote:
> I never really got the impression that Guido was particularly *strongly* 
> opposed to this use of the extended call syntax. Merely that he was 
> concerned that it would break down if the relevant list turned out to be 
> large (that is, the abuse is using *args with a list when the list may 
> turn out to be large, not a problem specifically with using the star 
> syntax with zip()).

Is there some unexpected limit to the number of arguments that may be
passed with the *args format (say, "256 function arguments maximum are
supported by Python"), or is this concern just because of the raw
memory inherently used by the tuple?

In other words, if one is confident that one can whip tuples of the
required size around without using up available memory, would there
still be such a concern about the *args "abuse"?

-Peter