On Fri, 21 Feb 2014 07:13:25 -0500, Ned Batchelder wrote: > On 2/21/14 2:23 AM, dieter wrote: >> Sam<lightai...@gmail.com> writes: >> >>> >I need to pass a global variable into a python function. >> Python does not really have the concept "variable". >> >> What appears to be a variable is in fact only the binding of an object >> to a name. If you assign something to a variable, all you do is binding >> a different object to the name. >> >> > Man, do I hate this idea that Python has no variables. It has variables > (names associated with values, and the values can change over the course > of the program), they just don't work the same as C or Fortran > variables. In fact, they work exactly the same as Javascript or Ruby > variables.
I sympathise with your view. It seems quite ridiculous to claim that Python has no variables. If it has no variables, what on earth does it mean when we say "x = 42"? But the very ridiculousness is what gives it the attention-grabbing power that makes it a useful meme. "Python variables don't behave like C variables" might be true, but it's also wish-washy and forgettable. In my own case, I never quite got Python's name binding semantics until I was introduced to the "Python has no variables" meme. That got my attention long enough to listen to the actual message: my assumptions about how variables behave was based on Pascal semantics, and Python doesn't quite follow the same rules. Consequently, if I implicitly define "variable" to mean "Pascal variables", as I had been, then Python has no variables, it has these things called "name bindings". That's when I got it. I went through a phase where I too insisted that Python had no variables. But then my natural laziness asserted itself, and I decided that the word "variable" is too useful to always reject it (and besides, C- and Pascal- like languages don't have a monopoly on the word "variable"). Now, I use the terms "variable" or "reference" or "name binding" as I feel makes the most sense in context, depending on my best guess of the risk of misunderstanding or confusion. -- Steven -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
