An oddity in list comparison and element assignment

[Alex Martelli]

<michael.f.ellis at gmail.com> wrote:
   ...
> I agree with Alex that checking for this type of inequality is not a
> trivial programming exercise.  It requires (at least) a parallel

I'm not asking for ANY programming: I'm asking for a *straightforward
operational definition*.  If the concept which you hanker after is NOT
subject to a straightforward operational definition, then I would rule
out that said concept could POSSIBLY be "natural".

> Alternatively, it might make sense to disallow == for containers by
> raising a TypeError although that would eliminate a largely useful
> feature.

This may be the best example I've ever seen of Emerson's well-known
quote about foolish consistency -- except that I don't think this
behavior would be "consistent" (either wisely or foolishly) with
anything except a vague handwaving set of constraints whose
"naturalness" (assuming it's unfeasible to provide a good and
straightforward operational definition) is out of the question.


Alex