str vs dict API size (was 'Re: left padding zeroes on a string...')

[Larry Bates]

Once it is in everyone is hesitant to take it out for fear of
breaking someone's code that uses it (no matter how obscure).
Putting in new methods should be difficult and require lots
of review for that reason and so we don't have language bloat.

Larry Bates


George Sakkis wrote:
> "M.E.Farmer" <mefjr75 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
>>[snipped]
>>
>>Be sure to study up on string methods, it will save you time and
>>sanity.
>>Py> dir('')
>>['__add__', '__class__', '__contains__', '__delattr__', '__doc__',
>>'__eq__', '__ge__', '__getattribute__', '__getitem__', '__getslice__',
>>'__gt__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__le__', '__len__', '__lt__',
>>'__mul__', '__ne__', '__new__', '__reduce__', '__repr__', '__rmul__',
>>'__setattr__', '__str__', 'capitalize', 'center', 'count', 'decode',
>>'encode', 'endswith', 'expandtabs', 'find', 'index', 'isalnum',
>>'isalpha', 'isdigit', 'islower', 'isspace', 'istitle', 'isupper',
>>'join', 'ljust', 'lower', 'lstrip', 'replace', 'rfind', 'rindex',
>>'rjust', 'rstrip', 'split', 'splitlines', 'startswith', 'strip',
>>'swapcase', 'title', 'translate', 'upper', 'zfill']
> 
> 
> I'm getting off-topic here, but it strikes me that strings have so many methods (some of which are
> of arguable utility, e.g. swapcase), while proposing two useful methods (http://tinyurl.com/5nv66)
> for dicts -- a builtin with a considerably smaller API than str -- meets so much resistance. Any
> insight ?
> 
> George
> 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> "Oh divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be
> invisible, through you inaudible and hence we can hold the enemy's fate
> in our hands."
> 
> Sun Tzu, 'The Art of War'
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
>