Help understanding the decisions *behind* python?

[Dave Angel]

sturlamolden wrote:
> On 20 Jul, 18:27, Phillip B Oldham <phillip.old... at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> We're not looking to start any arguments or religious wars and we're
>> not asking that python be changed into something its not. We'd simply
>> like to understand the decision behind the lists and tuple structures.
>> We feel that in not "getting" the difference between the two types we
>> may be missing out on using these data structures to their full
>> potential.
>>     
>
> A crude simplification would be:
>
> - A Python programmer will use a tuple where a C programmer will use a
> struct.
>
> - Python and C programmers use lists and arrays similarly.
>
> Tuples are used for passing arguments to and from a function. Common
> use of tuples include multiple return values and optional arguments
> (*args).
>
> It has already been mentioned that tuples are immutable and can be
> used as dictionary keys.
>
>
>   
I think collections.namedtuple, introduced in Python 2.6, might help 
bridge the gap between a traditional tuple and a C struct.