Is '[' a function or an operator or an language feature?

[python at bdurham.com]

Thomas,

> In slightly related news, I just stumbled upon this:
> http://catb.org/esr/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html
> 
> Now of course, he had it tough.

Tough???

Well we had it tough. Our computers[1][2] had 0 bytes of RAM and 0 bytes
of ROM. We had to hand wire our logic and physically push data through
logic gates without the benefit of transistors. We used to have to get
up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road
clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel,
worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six
years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread
knife.

Malcolm 

[1] http://totallytrygve.com/computer.php?item=188&picture=0 

[2] I learned about computers through one of these kits. When I first
stumbled across assembly language (6502), my first thought was, "wow,
this is so much easier than what I've been doing"!


<snipped>
>> 2.x?! You were lucky. We lived for three months with Python 1.x in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, write our 1.x code using ed, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down in machine language, fourteen hours a day, 
> week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad
> would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt...
> 
> Luxury. Our computers only had 256 bytes[1] of RAM and We had to enter
> our code, in the dark, using loose binary toggle switches with poor
> connections. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in
> the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to work at
> the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would beat
> us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY! 
>
> [1] http://incolor.inebraska.com/bill_r/elf/html/elf-1-33.htm

In slightly related news, I just stumbled upon this:

http://catb.org/esr/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html

Now of course, he had it tough.
</snipped>