Steven D'Aprano wrote:
You've just *assumed* that assignment in Algol 60 doesn't involving
copying.
I've done no such thing. I've *refrained* from assuming that
the "assignment" in the definition always has to refer to
Algol 60 assignment. You're the one insisting on tying
everything to Algol.
I don't know whether the Algol committee had such a general
meaning in mind when they wrote that document. It's quite
likely they weren't thinking that far ahead. But the fact is
that it *can* be generalized to other languages in an
obvious and useful way, and many language designers after
them have generalized it in exactly that way.
(I wait now with bated breath for somebody to point out some Python
implementation or feature where assignment doesn't make a copy...)
Ah crap, I meant *Pascal*.
Not in plain Pascal, but Apple's Object Pascal (and probably
other OO Pascal dialects) have object types that are implicitly
referred to by pointers, like Python objects -- and when you
pass one by value, only the pointer is copied, not the whole
object.
--
Greg
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