array and list

[Travis Jensen]

On Jan 18, 2008, at 2:48 AM, bearophileHUGS at lycos.com wrote:

> J. Peng>why perl call it array and python call it list?<
>
> Unfortunate naming, I'd say. Calling list a dynamic array is silly,
> despite all the things you may say about abstract data types having
> the correct methods, etc.


I wouldn't call it unfortunate.  The list semantics follow LISP's  
semantics far more closely than C's array semantics.  I would hazard  
to guess that they are called lists because that is what every  
functional language calls them and this aspect of python was modeled  
after functional languages.

tj

Travis Jensen
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http://softwaremaven.innerbrane.com/

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