[Python-ideas] Create a StringBuilder class and use it everywhere

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

k_bx writes:

 > Ok, so while I think that cStringIO.StringIO is not what we shoud
 > use, io.StringIO should be okay (since it wasn't explpicitly
 > created to be file-like), so there's no reason not to use that (and
 > it performs good, on pypy also) ((except that I don't like it's
 > API, of course)).

Well, you are free to use StringBuilder in your own programs (though I
don't recommend that).

 > p.s.: it seems people read code much more often then they do read FAQ

Sure, but that says more about the people than it does about the FAQ.
We can't write all the code that they're going to read, and we can't
choose what examples they'll follow.  The best we can do is follow the
Zen of Python, specifically, "There should be one -- and preferable
only one -- obvious way to do it."  (Don't say, "but the sep.join(lst)
idiom is hardly obvious!"  The Zen has an answer to that, too.  Try
"python -m this" if you don't know about the Zen.)  The other ways of
doing it are more specialized, ie, optimized for particular cases.

The point is that the StringBuilder class doesn't do things any better
than the existing idioms.  Its only advantage is a somewhat more
discoverable name.  That's not a good enough reason to proliferate
names for good ways to do this.  And .join() is often natural, so it
won't be deprecated in favor of StringBuilder.