On Tue, 01 Oct 2013 00:45:06 +0100, Ned Batchelder <n...@nedbatchelder.com>
wrote:
On 9/30/13 6:02 PM, Ethan Furman wrote:
From your blog:
Names are Python's variables: they refer to values, and
those values can change (vary) over the course of your
program.
This is partially incorrect. If the value referred to by the name is
immutable, then it cannot change; perhaps you meant to say that which
object the name points to can vary over time?
Yes, I meant that 1) names refer to values, and 2) a name can refer to
different values over the course of a program. Hence, the value varies,
hence, a variable.
Yes, except no. The problem is that word "value", which I can practically
see morphing its meaning through that paragraph. Names refer to objects,
which have values or interpretations or however you choose to say it.
Some (mutable) objects can change their value, some (immutable) can't.
Independently, names can refer to different objects, which may or may not
have different values (or indeed concepts of value).
When you say "The value varies", it begs the question "Which 'the value'?"
In fact, it's more accurate to say that Python has no constants! :)
Or, alternatively, that Python has many constants, such as all those
immutable integers cached around the place :-) What it doesn't have is
fixed bindings.
--
Rhodri James *-* Wildebeest Herder to the Masses
--
https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
