[Pythonmac-SIG] Using Python with Terminal

[Bob Ippolito]

On Mar 9, 2005, at 4:13 PM, Nick Matsakis wrote:

>
> Is there a simple way to use python with the Mac Terminal so that the
> arrow keys will allow you to execute previously executed statements?
> I'm using python 2.3.0 on 10.3.

install readline, pyrep, or the like.. I'll have a readline installer 
up at http://pythonmac.org/packages/ later today.

After installing readline, you may want to take a look at IPython to 
further enhance the experience.

> Also, a random Python question.  I'd like to get an arbitrary element 
> from
> a sets.Set _without_ mutating the sets.  The most concise way I could 
> find
> is this:
>
> for item in someset: break
>
> Which will assign item to an arbitrary element in someset.  This
> expression really annoys me, though. Is there a better way?

item = iter(someset).next() has the same semantics as the above 
statement, except for empty sets it will raise a StopIteration right 
away, instead of a NameError when you try and use "item" :)

-bob