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Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:18:18 +1100
Subject: Re: Python Interview Questions
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:33524

On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 1:09 PM, Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> wrote:
> The theorist understands that a chisel and a screwdriver were intended
> for different purposes, but the pragmatist gets the paint can open.

A good tool can always be used in ways its inventor never intended -
and it will function as its user expects.

$ some_program | egrep --color=always '(ERROR|^)'

will highlight the word ERROR in red anywhere it appears in the
program's output, while maintaining all other lines without color. Not
normal use of grep, to be sure, but quite functional.

A tuple may have been intended to be a record, a struct, whatever, but
it is what it is, and I'll use one any time it's the best tool for the
job. Maybe its immutability is critical; or maybe it's just the most
convenient syntax and all I care about is that it be iterable.

But when I'm explaining grep to someone, I'll describe it as a filter
that keeps only some lines from the original, and when I describe a
tuple, I'll point out that it's immutable and (potentially) hashable.
The obvious first, the unobvious later.

ChrisA