String from File -> List without parsing

[Gregor Horvath]

John Machin wrote:

>>  f = file("I050901.ids").readlines()
>  
> Y3K bug alert :-)

but then there is Python 3000 and Hurd, which solves all problems of 
this universe :-)

> Something like this:
> 
>  >>> def munch(astrg):
> ...    return [x[1:-1] for x in astrg.rstrip("\n")[1:-1].split(", ")]

Thanks!

> (1) You neither want nor need to use eval.

I wanted to avoid parsing, but when parsing is an 1 liner, I think its 
the better solution.

> 
> (2) What is creating files like that? If it is a Python script, consider 
> writing them using the csv module; that way, other software can read 
> them easily.
> 

Its a Python script.
But the file is not intended to be used by another sotware, although it 
should be readable by humans. I think the python syntax is better human 
readable than csv.

After all the sense of this file is to make a list persistant quickly 
and easily and human readable. Maybe pickleing is a third option?

--
Gregor