Why does Python use methods for some functionality (e.g. list.index()) but functions for other (e.g. len(list))?
The major reason is history. Functions were used for those operations that were generic for a group of types and which were intended to work even for objects that didn’t have methods at all (e.g. tuples). It is also convenient to have a function that can readily be applied to an amorphous collection of objects when you use the functional features of Python (map(), apply() et al). In fact, implementing len(), max(), min() as a built-in function is actually less code than implementing them as methods for each type. One can quibble about individual cases but it’s a part of Python, and it’s too late to make such fundamental changes now. The functions have to remain to avoid massive code breakage. Note that for string operations Python has moved from external functions (the string module) to methods. However, len() is still a function.
