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[Python-Dev] operator.is*Type

Greg Ewing greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz
Thu Feb 23 05:25:34 CET 2006 
Delaney, Timothy (Tim) wrote:

> Since we're adding the __index__ magic method, why not have a
> __getindexed__ method for sequences.

I don't think this is a good idea, since it would be
re-introducing all the confusion that the existence of
two C-level indexing slots has led to, this time for
user-defined types.

> The backwards-incompatibility comes in when you have a type that
> implements __getindexed__, and a subclass that implements __getitem__

I don't think this is just a backwards-incompatibility
issue. Having a single syntax that can correspond to more
than one special method is inherently ambiguous. What do
you do if both are defined? Sure you can come up with
some rule to handle it, but it's better to avoid the
situation in the first place.

-- 
Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept, +--------------------------------------+
University of Canterbury,	   | Carpe post meridiam!          	  |
Christchurch, New Zealand	   | (I'm not a morning person.)          |
greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz	   +--------------------------------------+
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