[Python-ideas] discontinue iterable strings

[Edward Minnix]

This would introduce a major inconsistency. To do this, you would need to also strip string’s of their status as sequences (in collections.abc, Sequence is a subclass of Iterable). Thus, making string’s no longer iterable would also mean you could no longer take the length or slice of a string.

While I believe your proposal was well intentioned, IMHO it would cause a giant inconsistency in Python (why would one of our core sequences not be iterable?)

- Ed

> On Aug 19, 2016, at 11:13 PM, Alexander Heger <python at 2sn.net> wrote:
> 
> standard python should discontinue to see strings as iterables of characters - length-1 strings.  I see this as one of the biggest design flaws of python.  It may have seem genius at the time, but it has passed it usefulness for practical language use.  For example, numpy has no issues
> 
> >>> np.array('abc')
> array('abc', dtype='<U3')
> 
> whereas, as all know, 
> 
> >>> list('abc')
> ['a', 'b', 'c']
> 
> Numpy was of course design a lot later, with more experience in practical use (in mind).
> 
> Maybe a starting point for transition that latter operation also returns ['abc'] in the long run, could be to have an explicit split operator as recommended use, e.g.,
> 
> 'abc'.split()
> 'abc'.split('')
> 'abc'.chars()
> 'abc'.items()
> 
> the latter two could return an iterator whereas the former two return lists (currently raise exceptions).
> Similar for bytes, etc.
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Python-ideas mailing list
> Python-ideas at python.org
> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas
> Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/