sorting ascending/descending with operator.attrgetter

Steve Holden steve at holdenweb.com
Wed Mar 31 22:19:27 EDT 2010


Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:21:18 -0700, Patrick Maupin wrote:
> 
>> Doesn't matter though.  The OP was sorting lists, not strings, so he
>> knew what I meant.
> 
> I have found that when people ask basic questions about fundamental 
> Python operations like sorting, it is risky to assume that they will know 
> what I meant if I say something different.
> 
> Since I've been on both the giving and receiving end of carelessly 
> inaccurate answers, I know how frustrating it is to spend significant 
> time trying to work out what I was doing wrong, only to be told much 
> later "Oh, I meant you should do Y, not X. I thought you would understand 
> what I meant."
> 
But you surely will admit that you could be held to, well rather than
"be pedantic" perhaps we should say "tend towards the literal"?

I'm the same myself, and I know from personal experience that while I am
(simply?) seeking accuracy and truth it sometimes bugs the hell out of
people ...

It's a geek thing.

regards
 Steve
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