Thomas Bartkus wrote: > Python *does* require that your variables be declared and initialized before > you use them. You did that with epsilon=0 and S=0 at the top. It is > unfortunate, however, that the statement epselon=epsilon+1 also declares a > new variable in the wrong place at the wrong time. Such mispellings are a > *common* error caught instantly in languages that require a more formal > declaration procedure.
I have no interest in arguing this right now, but it does raise a question for me: How common is it for a local variable to be bound in more than one place within a function? It seems that it isn't (or shouldn't be) too common. Certainly the most common case where this occurs is for temporary variables and counters and stuff. These typically have short names and thus are not as likely to be misspelled. Another common place is for variables that get bound before and inside a loop. I would guess that's not as common in Python as it is in other languages, seeing that Python has features like iterators that obviate the need to do this. (The OP's original example should have been "for epsilon in range(10)"; epsilon only needed bound in one place.) I guess this might be why, in practice, I don't seem to encounter the misspelling-a-rebinding error too often, even though I'm prone to spelling errors. Perhaps, if someone runs into this error a lot, the problem is not with Python, but with their tendency to rebind variables too much? Just a thought. -- CARL BANKS -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
