On Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:03:58 +0100, Piet van Oostrum <p...@cs.uu.nl> wrote:
"Rhodri James" <rho...@wildebst.demon.co.uk> (RJ) wrote:
RJ> On Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:55:45 +0100, Hrvoje Niksic
<hnik...@xemacs.org> wrote:
Ben Finney <ben+pyt...@benfinney.id.au> writes:
Utpal Sarkar <doe...@gmail.com> writes:
Is there a way I can tell a variable that the object it is pointing
too is not owned by it, in the sense that if it is the only
reference
to the object it can be garbage collected?
Python doesn't have “pointers”, and doesn't really have “variables”
either, at least not how many other languages use that term.
The OP didn't use the term "pointer", but the word "pointing", which
makes sense in the context. The term "variable" is used in the Python
language reference and elsewhere, and is quite compatible with how
other
popular languages (Java, PHP, Lisp, ...) use it.
RJ> Only superficially. Treating Python variables the same as C
variables
RJ> (say) is one of the classic ways that newbies come unstuck when
mutable
RJ> objects appear on the scene. While the OP appears to have the
right idea,
RJ> your "correction" here could be quite misleading.
If you read the OP, it is clear that he talked about a class variable,
which is a perfectly legal notion in Python, and is mentioned as such in
the language reference manual:
`Variables defined in the class definition are class variables'
Yes. I didn't think I needed to say that explicitly.
And who was talking about C variables?
Hrvoje, implicitly. 'The term "variable" is used in the Python
language reference and elsewhere, and is quite compatible with how
other popular languages (Java, PHP, Lisp, ...) use it.' I listed
C as another example of a popular language because I am very familiar
with how C's variables work; I don't know Java, I've never programmed
PHP in anger and it's twenty years since I last touched Lisp.
The point was, and remains, that this newsgroup gets regular traffic
from people who expect Python's variables to act like C's variables,
demonstrating that describing them as "quite compatible" is somewhat
misleading.
--
Rhodri James *-* Wildebeest Herder to the Masses
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
