In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > "Donn Cave" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ... > > So you've had time to think about how you would define value, in a > > few words. Any ideas? > > Not yet. The reason is that I am still trying to figure out > what a value is myself. Do all objects have values? If > not which do and which don't? What's the value of int(1)? > An object? Some otherwise unreachable thing that > represents the abstract concept of the number 1? > What the value of object()? A few weeks ago I turned > to that page for enlightenment, with the results I reported. > > > I find the topic difficult, myself. I think you really have to apply > > some context to the question, so there may not be any satisfactory > > definition for the language reference. > > I have a hard time accepting that. I do not think there > is any aspect of human thought that cannot be described > by a sufficiently skilled writer.
But you're asking for more than that. We're not just talking about how people think about value, you want a definition that's suitable for a language reference. Whereupon you would indeed run into the kinds of questions you pose above, and more. > > But maybe it would be simple with the right focus. If we could somehow > > define value, how would that help? I mean, presumably we need to > > understand all this stuff because we want to write some software, and > > if we dive in without understanding, our attempts will be plagued with > > conceptual errors. Is there something about value in particular that > > seems to be a problem here? ``No, you idiot, that's not a value - > > THIS is a value!'' > > Yes, see above. How can you feel confident working with > things that aren't understood? (c.f. this thead about > problems resulting from python beginner's misconceptions > about references.) I'm saying that the definition of value doesn't contribute to my understanding of my work. I guess we might say that the whole point of a computer programming language is a mechanism for the representation and manipulation of values, and our task is to understand the mechanism enough to work with it. That's what the language reference is for. Donn Cave, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
