Comparison of functions

[tiissa]

Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> It was easy. I never once asked myself whether some complex number was
> greater or less than another, I just asked "which one comes first in a
> lexicographic sort?"
> 
> The two questions are NOT the same, and it is an ugliness in an otherwise
> beautiful language that Python treats them as the same.

The point is Python does not.
The order you proposed above can be implemented using a comparison 
function you can pass to the sort function of lists [1] or the sorted 
builtin [2].
If the elements can be compared, Python offers you not to pass the cmp 
function to sort if you want to use this default order.

Python allows you to use the default ordering to sort a list but does 
not treat both questions in the same manner. However, the fact is 
ordering a list using the default '<' happens pretty often.

In the case of complex numbers, no mathematically sound comparison 
function exists and Python does not impose some default function that 
would be called a wart.


[1] http://docs.python.org/lib/typesseq-mutable.html
[2] http://docs.python.org/lib/built-in-funcs.html