[Tutor] methods versus functions (using lists as an example)

[Hans Fangohr]

Dear all,

I was looking at what you can do with lists in Python. There are
basically two sets of commands: (i) methods doing something with a
list (such as sort(), reverse(), count(), ...) and (ii) functions that
take a list as an argument (such as sum(), max(), min()).

I would expect that there is a rationale behind this choice -- would
anyone know what this is or where I can find more information?

Many thanks,

Hans