[Python-Dev] iterzip() (original) (raw)

Barry A. Warsaw barry@zope.com
Sun, 28 Apr 2002 21:47:20 -0400

"RH" == Raymond Hettinger <python@rcn.com> writes:

RH> I started down this road, by checking code in the Vaults of
RH> Parnassus on the assumption that zip() is rarely used outside
RH> a for-loop.  What may be the killer is the examples of zip()
RH> in Python books which demonstrate a stand-alone zip()
RH> returning a list -- in some ways, textbook examples are just
RH> as important as in-field code.

RH> I will write-up a PEP to see if the world cares.  For all I
RH> know, I may be the only who uses zip() throughout my code.
RH> Zip is just new enough that it might not be too late to change
RH> it to an iterator.

The question is how the zip() list is used. E.g. if it just ends up being the source of a for-loop sequence, then it makes little difference in practice.

RH> Does anyone know of an automated what that I can scan a large
RH> body of published Python code.  I would want some real usage
RH> statistics in a PEP but hate pulling modules down one at a
RH> time and grepping them.

No, but it would be a really cool tool. And if it's available via cgi or some other commonly available process, Mark Hammond could add it to his neat Mozilla sidebar.

Wild thought: write a cron script which does a cvs update every hour, and runs Tools/scripts/eptags.py over the standard library. Then front a simple TAGS file searcher with cgi. Then maybe we can put it up on python.org's cgi-bin directory.

-Barry