functions with unlimeted variable arguments...

[Peter Hansen]

Xah Lee wrote:
> oops... it is in the tutorial... sorry.

If you're sorry, have you now *finally* gone and worked through the rest 
of tutorial, making a serious attempt to learn it?

> This is not a rhetorical question, but where would one start to look
> for it in the python ref?
> 
> a language is used by programers. Subroutine definition with
> variable/default parameters is a basic issue a programer wants to know,
> and different languages differs very much in how they handle this. This
> is what i mean that the language doc should be programing oriented, as
> opposed to computer-sciency or implementation oriented...

You seem to be under the impression that most programmers learn a new 
language by looking up key phrases such as "variable argument list" in 
the index of their new language's manual as they encounter the need for 
a feature.

In actual fact, most programmers learn by finding a tutorial or 
convenient beginner's lesson (hint hint), and then by browsing through 
other material such as a FAQ (hint hint), and then perhaps by skimming 
quickly through the reference material to learn what is there.  This way 
they avoid making themselves look like complete and utter fools by 
appearing to learn only by looking up things in the index.

-Peter