> You're missing the point entirely. Maps have no defined order. You cannot "change" the order of a map, because it has no order.

Clearly, I am not the one missing the point...

The order maps iterate is not the point. The point is that e.g. a 'print' function should print, not sort and change the order.

> just because the printing function is choosing alphabetical order to print things out in, it's not "manipulating" anything

Again, the printing function does not 'choose', it manipulates the date returned by sorting them.

My point is that, to follow good design principle, this sorted iteration should be a public API of maps.