Comparison problem

[Tim Henderson]

peter

would not the more correct way to do this be short circuit
evaluation. somthing along lines of

if (len(item) > 0) and (item[0] == '-'): pass

seems to be the more correct approach. rather than relying on slicing
to return an empty string. For instance suppose you wanted to test to
see if than spot contained an empty string. If you used the slice
meathod you would be in a pickle. However in this particular case it
seems to be clear that the use of .startswith() is the single best
approach.