Re: [matplotlib-devel] A question about cbook.is_string_like

[Nicolas G. <nic...@ga...>]

Hi Andrew,

Andrew Straw <str...@as...> wrote:
> I'm not speaking with the authority of one who actually wrote the
> function or uses it, so I don't know the specific reasons, if there are
> any. However, this kind of thing is common (and encouraged) practice in
> Python. It's a use of "duck typing". For more info see
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_typing

Thank you for your answer. I use Python for two years now and know
"duck typing" very well. It's one of the most powerful features of
this language.

But in this function, I don't like the idea to try an operation on a
string, and wait for an exception in order to know if we really have a
string or not. It's not very efficient, nor very beautiful.

I guess initial developer did that to keep compatibility with old
Python versions.