Script to interactively sort some options by repeated comparison

isort.py

#! /usr/bin/env python

import sys
import itertools

def recording_in(d):
	def recording(f):
		def recording_f(*args):
			result = f(*args)
			d[args] = result
			return result
		return recording_f
	return recording

comparisons = {}

@recording_in(comparisons)
def compare(a, b):
	while True:
		opinion = raw_input("(a) %s (b) %s (=) no preference? " % (a, b))
		if opinion == 'a': return -1
		elif opinion == 'b': return 1
		elif opinion == '=': return 0
		else: print "please enter a, b, or ="

if len(sys.argv) < 2:
	raise ValueError, "you must give this script a list of options as arguments"

options = sys.argv[1:]

options.sort(cmp=compare)

print

COMPARISON_DESCRIPTIONS = {
	-1: "%s > %s",
	0: "%s = %s",
	1: "%s < %s",
}
for comparands, result in sorted(comparisons.items()):
	print COMPARISON_DESCRIPTIONS[result] % comparands

print

for position, option in zip(itertools.count(1), options):
	print position, option