[chimeracoder]

> Apparently this is especially useful for scientific and mathematical computing. I can't see how it's especially dangerous since just about everyone will use list instead.

Actually, I use Python for mathematical computing, and I've never used Python's built-in arrays. NumPy arrays are much more convenient, and NumPy is written in C, so it's way faster than using a list.

It's a win-win: the speed of C, combined with the flexibility and syntax of Python.

The only reason array really exists in Python (this implementation, that is), is to support some other libraries that need O(1) indexing but don't want to depend on NumPy. For everything else, you should really just use NumPy.

[kzrdude]

Not a surprise. Python's `array` doesn't really do much, it just allows you to store and access homogenous data without wasting memory. That's all. It doesn't really deserve to be on this list.