"Carl Banks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <snip>
> How common is it for a local variable to be bound in > more than one place within a function? How common? It shouldn't happen at all and that was the point. The original posters code demonstrates how it can occur inadvertently as a result of a simple typographical error. You won't hear me claim that Python is without mitigating virtues. Clearly, there is much about Python that encourages good design which will in turn reduce the incidence of such errors. Nevertheless, one has to admit to this blemish. One also wonders if it is really necessary to endure what looks to me like an omission. Is there a reason why the interpreter couldn't/shouldn't require formal declarations? I, too, wish there were a switch like VBs "Option Explicit" that would require you to declare "epsilon = 0" and thereafter have the interpretor refuse assignment to an undeclared "epselon". Sane VB programmers (and yes, there are a few!) leave it on by default and consider it abomination that the switch is optional. The original posters example was a good one. I had to take a good long stare before I saw it even though the code is short, sweet, and otherwise correct. *Is* there a reason why the interpreter couldn't/shouldn't require formal variable declaration? It seems to me that lack of same may also be creating hellish barriers to writing truly effective IDEs for Python. Thomas Bartkus -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
