unzip function?

[Devin Jeanpierre]

On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 10:27 AM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
>> That zip (*sorted...
>>
>> does the unzipping.
>>
>> But it's less than intuitively obvious.
>
> *shrug*
>
> If you understand what zip does, it should be obvious.

Nobody likes to be told the thing they're confused about is trivial.
It's especially bad if nobody ever actually explains what's so simple
about it. Saying it's "almost its own inverse" is just restating the
original question -- yes, that's what it is, but why? (I have put my
own interpretation in a separate reply.
)
-- Devin