about sort and dictionary

[bonono at gmail.com]

Fredrik Lundh wrote:
> bonono at gmail.com wrote:
>
> > > so what would an entry-level Python programmer expect from this
> > > piece of code?
> > >
> > >     for item in a.reverse():
> > >         print item
> > >     for item in a.reverse():
> > >         print item
> > >
> > I would expect it to first print a in reverse then a as it was.
> >
> > a=[1,2,3]
> >
> > I expect it to print
> >
> > 3
> > 2
> > 1
> > 1
> > 2
> > 3
>
> really?  wouldn't
>
>     3
>     2
>     1
>     3
>     2
>     1
>
> make a lot more sense ?
I have no idea. That is my expectation. I don't know yours.

My interpretation of it is :

a got reversed then I consume it one by one
a got reversed again then I consume it one by one

Because I expect a being a mutable object, anything works on it(not
just object method, but even other functions) is by default has side
effect, unless otherwise stated, like copy/deepcopy.