On 2010-11-01 22:31 , Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
In message<8j1seqfa1...@mid.individual.net>, Gregory Ewing wrote:
Steven D'Aprano wrote:
And how does Python know whether some arbitrary default object is mutable
or not?
It doesn't, that's the whole point.
Of course it knows. It is the one defining the concept in the first place,
after all.
No, the Python interpreter doesn't define the concept. The Python language
developers did. "Immutable objects" are just those without an obvious API for
modifying them. With various trickeries, I can mutate any immutable object. The
Python interpreter doesn't know what's an "obvious API" and what isn't. It's a
reasonably vague concept that doesn't have an algorithmic formulation.
--
Robert Kern
"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
an underlying truth."
-- Umberto Eco
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