[Python-Dev] Discussion on adding rsplit() for strings and unicode objects. (original) (raw)

Sean Reifschneider jafo-python-dev at tummy.com
Fri Sep 19 04:33:46 EDT 2003

A few weeks ago I submitted a patch to add an rsplit() method to string and unicode objects:

Adding rsplit() to string and unicode objects. (2003-09-06) http://python.org/sf/801847

loewis responded with:

[...] I feel that there are already too many string methods, so I won't accept that patch. I'm not rejecting it, either, because I see that other maintainers might have a different opinion. In short, you should propose your change to python-dev, finding out what "a majority" of the maintainers thinks [...]

My understanding of why the patch was not accepted is that users can implement it themselves.

My reason for spending the time implementing the patch was that I noticed it was missing in some coding I was doing. Instead of having this tool available, I had to interrupt the flow of my coding and build and test an rsplit implementation. Not a huge undertaking, of course, but still something that had to be dealt with.

I guess at least some maintainers wish for string objects to have fewer methods. I haven't heard of any alternative location to place it other than placing a Python implementation in the Cookbook. That alternative seems strange to me -- requiring a user locate and maintain an alternative implementation in their own code, likely at a fairly big performance penalty (my rsplit is an adaptation of the existing split() C code).

Obviously, I felt this was enough of a lack in the library that I spent most of a Sunday afternoon tracking down and implementing it. One of Python's strengths is it's rich standard library (he says after spending a few hours unsuccessfully trying to package a dozen Perl modules), and I'd like to see it get even better.

I'd like to open this discussion, as loewis suggests, to the python-dev folks. Thoughts?

Thanks, Sean

Money is the root of all evil! Man needs roots... Sean Reifschneider, Member of Technical Staff <jafo at tummy.com> tummy.com, ltd. - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, Python, SysAdmin Back off man. I'm a scientist. http://HackingSociety.org/

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