Python uses a data model of "name binding" and "call by object" (also known as "call by sharing"). I trust I don't need to define my terms, but just in case:
http://effbot.org/zone/call-by-object.htm http://effbot.org/zone/python-objects.htm Now, this is different from languages like C and Pascal, which is based on variables, or Forth, which explicitly manipulates a stack. Quite often, when people want to impress upon others that Python is not C, they will say: "Python's data model is different from other languages" which is perfectly correct, if you think of C as "other languages". But it's equally correct to say that Python's data model is the same as other languages. As I understand it, Python and Ruby have the same data model. So does Java, so long as you only consider objects and ignore unboxed native values. I believe (but could be wrong) that another language of about the same vintage as Python, Emerald, also uses the same model. That's not surprising, because I believe that Emerald (just like Python) was strongly influenced by CLU. What other languages use the same, or mostly similar, data model as Python? -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
