Why doesn't python's list append() method return the list itself?

[John Nagle]

On 7/11/2010 5:24 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Sun, 11 Jul 2010 08:59:06 -0700, dhruvbird wrote:
>
>> Why doesn't python's list append() method return the list itself? For
>> that matter, even the reverse() and sort() methods? I found this link
>> (http://code.google.com/edu/languages/google-python- class/lists.html)
>> which suggests that this is done to make sure that the programmer
>> understands that the list is being modified in place, but that rules out
>> constructs like:
>> ([1,2,3,4].reverse()+[[]]).reverse()
>
> Yes. So what? Where's the problem?
>
> List methods work in place.
...
> Not everything needs to be a one-liner.

    It's interesting that all Python functions are considered to
return a value.  Arguably, if a function just does a "return",
it should be an error to try to use its return value.

    Some languages have a very functional orientation, and
everything is considered to return some value, even
control structures. LISP is like that.  But Python isn't
one of those languages.

				John Nagle