On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:32:10 +0000, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:12:56 +0000, Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch wrote:
>
>> A "variable" in programming languages is composed of a name, a memory
>> location, possibly a type and a value. In C-like languages, where you
>> put values in named and typed "boxes", the memory location and type are
>> attached to the name. In Python both belong to the value.
>
> But Python objects don't have names, so by your own definition, they
> aren't variables.
Exactly! Names aren't variables. The unit of a name, an address, and a
value are a variable.
> Names are associated with namespaces, not objects. A name must have one
> and only one object bound to it at any one time;
What is a binding when it's not an association between a name and an
object!? So names are associated with objects. There are no names
without objects in Python. If a name is not bound to any object, how could
the name exist? That would be like a dangling pointer, a beast that
doesn't exists in Python.
<nitpick>Okay there are local names that are known and therefore somehow
"exist" before they get bound, but that's IMHO an implementation
detail.<nitpick>
> objects on the other hand can be bound to one name, or no name, or a
> thousand names. The object itself has no way of knowing what names it is
> bound to, if any.
>
> Or, to put it another way... Python doesn't have variables.
It has. You just can't substitute the term "name" with "variable" and
expect it to behave like in C. A variable is not just the name but also
the value and the storage space and how those are connected.
Ciao,
Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch
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