On Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 6:42 AM, Stefan Ram <r...@zedat.fu-berlin.de> wrote: > Chris Angelico <ros...@gmail.com> writes: >>here's a C program that actually MANIPULATES pointers: > ... >>x += 2; > ... >>You can in C. Can you in Java? > > »dog = null« in Java would correspond to »x = 0« in C. > > It seems, to you, an assignment of »x + 2« to »x« is > "manipulation", while an assignment of »0« to »x« is not. > > Well, if you define the term "manipulation" to get the > results you intend, no one can prove you wrong, but your > words might be harder to understand when they do not use > the English meanings of words (like "manipulate") but your > ad-hoc meanings. >
dog = null in Java corresponds to x = None in Python. It's a null reference, but that's still a specific "thing". A fully compliant Python implementation could use a NULL pointer to represent the None object, as long as it correspondingly interprets such a pointer as representing None. In all of your Java examples, you're causing a name to refer to either an object or null, and everything you do can be explained in terms of name bindings Python-style. ChrisA -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
