is this pythonic?

[Bill Mill]

On 7/21/05, Steven D'Aprano <steve at removethiscyber.com.au> wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Jul 2005 16:30:10 -0400, Bill Mill wrote:
> 
> > On 7/20/05, Simon Brunning <simon.brunning at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> On 7/20/05, Mage <mage at mage.hu> wrote:
> >> > Or is there better way?
> >> >
> >> > for (i, url) in [(i,links[i]) for i in range(len(links))]:
> >>
> >> for i, url in enumerate(links):
> >>
> >
> > +2 for creating seeing a need and crafting a reasonable solution, but
> > -1 for not reading the section on builtins to see if it existed
> > already.
> 
> To see if *what* existed already?
> 
> It is well and good to say RTFM, but there are 697 subsections to the
> Python Library reference, and if you don't know what you are looking for,
> and beginners rarely are, it isn't obvious which is the right section to
> read. And the Library Reference isn't even "the" manual: there is also the
> global module reference and language reference.
> 
> If you already know what you are looking for, reading the manual is great
> advice. Browsing the manual looking for interesting tidbits can even be
> fun for a certain mindset. But if you don't know enough to know what to
> look for, where in the 2000-odd sections of the Python references will
> you find it?
> 

I said the *builtins* section. I think you learn pretty quick that
figuring out what functions are builtins is pretty important in every
language. There's a fair number of people out there giving the advice
to read chapter 2 of the library reference cover-to-cover for a good
starter on python.

Furthermore, I wasn't being hard on the guy, he still added up to +1.
Lighten up, I was joking.

> 
> 
> > (As for its pythonicity, I would have recommended isolating it into a
> > function and making it a generator:
> 
> It is easy to take this to extremes. It isn't necessary to isolate
> everything into its own object, or class, or module. Too much
> encapsulation is just as bad as too little.
> 

agreed; his listcomp just looks awkward inside the for loop statement;
if it were my code, I would put it into a function. He asked if his
code was pythonic, and I think the (non-extreme) pythonic thing to do
would be to put his listcomp into a function.

> 
> > def my_enumerate(enumerable):
> >     i = 0
> >     for elt in enumerable:
> >         yield (i, elt)
> >         i += 1
> >
> > for i, url in my_enumerate(links):
> >
> > but it's not too bad as it is. Also, my function is completely
> > untested - it's close to right though.)
> 
> What is the advantage of your function my_enumerate over the Python
> built-in enumerate?
> 
> 

absolutely none; I just was saying how I would encapsulate it into a function.

Peace
Bill Mill
bill.mill at gmail.com