On Oct 30, 2008, at 6:58 PM, greg wrote:
For what it's worth, I happen to agree that telling
someone that Python passes parameters "by value" without
being sure they understand exactly what "by value"
means, is not a good idea -- not because the term
isn't well-defined, but because of the widespread
confusion out there about it.
But equally I wouldn't tell someone that it's *not*
by value, because if they do happen to correctly
understand what it means, that will confuse them just
as much.
So my recommendation is just to tell them that it
works by assigning the result of evaluating the actual
parameter to the formal parameter.
If they understand how assignment works in Python, that
tells them all they need to know.
If they don't understand how assignment works, then they
have a more fundamental knowledge gap that needs to be
corrected first.
That's a very sensible stance. +1!
Best,
- Joe
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