How to make a reverse for loop in python?

[Alex Snast]

On Sep 21, 3:47 am, Steven D'Aprano <st... at REMOVE-THIS-
cybersource.com.au> wrote:
> On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:27:41 -0700, Alex Snast wrote:
> > Another quick question please, is the List data structure just a dynamic
> > array? If so how can you use static size array, linked list, AVL trees
> > etcetera.
>
> Before I answer your question, I should say that you can go a LONG way
> with just the standard Python built-in data structures list, dict and
> set, plus a handful of standard modules like array and collections. It's
> often (but not always) better to modify an algorithm to use a built-in
> data structure than to try to implement your own.
>
> The underlying data structure for lists is implementation specific. Only
> the behaviour is specified by the language.
>
> In the standard Python implementation written in C (usually known as
> "Python", although sometimes people explicitly describe it as CPython),
> lists are implemented as a fixed array of pointers. The array is
> periodically resized, either up or down, but only as needed. The largest
> consequence of that is that appending to the end of a list is much faster
> than inserting at the beginning of the list.
>
> Other implementations (IronPython, Jython, PyPy, CLPython...) are free to
> implement lists whatever way they need.
>
> If you want a static list, the simplest way is to create a list and
> simply not resize it. If you want to enforce that, here's a subclass to
> get you started:
>
> class StaticList(list):
>     def _resize(self):
>         raise RuntimeError("list can't be resized")
>     extend = append = pop = insert = remove = \
>     __delitem__ = __delslice__ = _resize
>
> I haven't dealt with __setitem__ or __setslice__, because they're more
> complicated: you need to make sure the slice you're setting has the same
> size as the bit you're replacing, so that this is allowed:
>
> mylist[3:6] = [1, 2, 3]
>
> but not these:
>
> mylist[3:6] = [1, 2]
> mylist[3:6] = [1, 2, 3, 4]
>
> As for linked lists and trees, don't worry about pointers, just go ahead
> and implement them.
>
> # basic, no-frills tree
> class Node(object):
>     def __init__(self, data, left=None, right=None):
>         self.left = left
>         self.right = right
>         self.info = data
>
> tree = Node('top of the tree')
> tree.left = Node('left subtree')
> tree.right = Node('right subtree', None, Node('another subtree'))
> t = tree.right.right
> t.left = Node('yet another subtree')
>
> etc.
>
> The CPython implementation of dict is a hash table, and dicts are
> extremely fast and efficient. So long as you don't mind losing the order
> of insertion, you won't beat dicts for speed and efficiency in anything
> you write in pure Python.
>
> --
> Steven

WOW you guys are really helpful, thanks everyone for all the replies.
Last question:

What IDE do you guys recommend, I'm currently using pydev.

Thanks again, Alex