Hrvoje Niksic wrote: > A C programmer > told that Python variables internally hold pointers expects this code: > > def func(a): > a = 10 > ... > func(x) > > to change the value of x.
He shouldn't expect that, because that's not what the equivalent code would do in C. To get that effect in C, you would (among other things) have to write the call as func(&x) which you can't do, because there is no & operator in Python. I would probably use the term "reference", and explain it by saying that a reference is a pointer to an object. Also that Python variables always hold references, never objects; a reference always refers to an entire object, never a part of an object or another variable; and that assignment is always reference assignment and never copies objects. And illustrate everything with lots of drawings of boxes and arrows. It's much easier to explain all these things unambiguously with diagrams than with words that may not mean the same thing to the listener that they mean to you. -- Greg -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
