Pythonification of the asterisk-based collection packing/unpacking syntax

[Chris Angelico]

On Sun, Dec 18, 2011 at 6:31 PM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
> My normal first place to look for something is Wikipedia. Enjoy it before
> SOPA kills it.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterisk#Programming_languages

I would never expect to find this sort of thing in the article on the
asterisk; maybe I'd look on the language's article, but more likely I
would be looking for info on the language's own web site.

> On Sat, 17 Dec 2011 23:33:27 -0600, Evan Driscoll wrote:
>> In the first pages
>> of the four searches matching "python (function)? (star | asterisk)",
>
> Your search looks overly complicated to me.

I understand this to mean that he did four searches:
* python star
* python function star
* python asterisk
* python function asterisk

> Never underestimate the power of Python's introspection tools, especially
> the two simplest ones: print and type. Often you will learn more in 10
> minutes experimentation than in an hour googling.

+1 QOTW. I refer to this as "IIDPIO debugging" (Eyed Pio) - If In
Doubt, Print It Out.

ChrisA