Re: Comprehensions

Mark Hahn wrote:

> Some generator/iterator questions (warning, late night questions)...
> 
> 1) Should functions like split be returning iterators instead of lists?
> What if you run split on a 100 megabyte file?  Can you run split on a file
> instead of a string in memory?

Yes, Guido has said he would use iterators more in the standard library 
if he could do it all again.

> 2) Should we visit every function that returns a list and change it to
> return an iterator?

Most...not list() or sort().

> 3) What is the difference between an iterator and a generator?  Does a
> generator generate values or does it generate iterator objects?  Enquiring
> minds want to know.

A generator is a kind of iterator created by either a generator function 
or a generator expression. There isn't anything deep that unites 
generator functions and generator expressions other than terminology. 
The functions and expressions both "generate" values. But they do so by 
creating objects that implement the iterator interface (i.e. are 
interators).

  Paul Prescod