Is using range() in for loops really Pythonic?

[John Salerno]

John Salerno wrote:
> I know it's popular and very handy, but I'm curious if there are purists
> out there who think that using something like:
> 
> for x in range(10):
>     #do something 10 times
> 
> is unPythonic. The reason I ask is because the structure of the for loop
> seems to be for iterating through a sequence. It seems somewhat
> artificial to use the for loop to do something a certain number of
> times, like above.
> 
> Anyone out there refuse to use it this way, or is it just impossible to
> avoid?

Ok, I think most people are misunderstanding my question a little. I 
probably should have said xrange instead of range, but the point of my 
question remains the same:

Should a for loop be used simply to do something X number of times, or 
should it strictly be used to step through an iterable object for the 
purpose of processing the items in that object?