General question about Python design goals

Jean-Paul Calderone exarkun at
Mon Nov 28 04:58:32 CET 2005

On 27 Nov 2005 19:49:26 -0800, Paul Rubin <""@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>Robert Kern <robert.kern at> writes:
>> Use cases are the primary tool for communicating those practical
>> needs. If you can't think of a single use case, what's the point of
>> implementing something? Or rather, why should someone else implement
>> it if you don't know how you would use it?
>I can't think of a single use case for the addition (+) operator
>working where either of the operands happens to be the number
>0x15f1ef02d9f0c2297e37d44236d8e8ddde4a34c96a8200561de00492cb94b82 (a
>random number I just got out of /dev/urandom).  I've never heard of
>any application using that number, and the chances of it happening by
>coincidence are impossibly low.  But if Python were coded in a way
>that made the interpreter crash on seeing that number, I'd call that
>a bug needing fixing.

If you seriously believe what you just wrote, you have failed to
understand the phrase "use case" (and possibly a lot of other
things related to programming ;)

However (fortunately for you) I suspect you don't.  If you really
did, you may want to pick up one of those platitude-filled XP books
and give it a careful read.  You may find there's more there than
you were previously aware.


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