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I think I really dislike Python

Ruby:

> irb
irb(main):001:0> a = [1,2,3]
=> [1, 2, 3]
irb(main):002:0> a[10] = 20
=> 20
irb(main):003:0> a
=> [1, 2, 3, nil, nil, nil, nil, nil, nil, nil, 20]

Perl:

> perl
@a = (1,2,3);
$a[10] = 20;
use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper(@a);
$VAR1 = 1;
$VAR2 = 2;
$VAR3 = 3;
$VAR4 = undef;
$VAR5 = undef;
$VAR6 = undef;
$VAR7 = undef;
$VAR8 = undef;
$VAR9 = undef;
$VAR10 = undef;
$VAR11 = 20;

Python:

> python
>>> a = [1,2,3]
>>> a[10] = 20
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in ?
IndexError: list assignment index out of range
>>> a
[1, 2, 3]

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I have a feeling that you’ll *really* hate C

I actually like C, since it is consistent. Much more verbose, but consistent non-the-less.

That’s exactly why I like python.
It takes all the black magic out of programming. But if you insist:

class RubyStyleList(list):
    def __setitem__(self, idx, val):
        if len(self) < idx:
            self.extend( [None]*(idx-len(self)) )
        return super(RubyStyleList, self).__setitem__(idx, val)

>>> l = RubyStyleList([1,2,3])
>>> l
[1, 2, 3]
>>> l[10]=99
>>> l
[1, 2, 3, None, None, None, None, None, None, None, 99]

Actually, it has been more than a year now that I work with Python everyday at my day job. I still dislike it, but started to understand the verbosity and torturing of programmers that it brings as a necessary evil.