[Python-Dev] Re: PEP 279 (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido@python.org
Tue, 02 Apr 2002 08:36:45 -0500

[David Abrahams]

I missed what this function does,

x(seq) returns [(0, seq[0]), (1, seq[1]), ...]

but:

"indexer" is a noun. I like it provided the function returns an indexer(). Otherwise, I'm not too sure.

Yeah, that's my main problem with it.

"enumerate()" sounds like it returns a list of the elements, or is an iterator interface over the elements. Looking it up at http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary shows that it is dangerously close to meaning what we want to say. I say "dangerously" because it doesn't mean what we want to say, and I think a close-but-not-quite meaning is probably much worse than calling it wafflebird.

I don't know.

unfortunately, numerate and itemize both mean about the same...

Numerate is obscure, but itemize() has potential!

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)