Chris Angelico <ros...@gmail.com>: > The formal definition is that objects have identities, and that > assignment (including function parameters and return values) gives you > a reference to the same object.
My example didn't contain a single assignment, but a variation of your statement would make a good part in a definition of identity. > "A person just walked into the revolving door and came back out > again." "Is it the same person?" "I don't know. What's the definition > of identity?" > > Of course it's the same person. You don't need to identify that person > by a social security number in order to say "the SAME PERSON came back > out". You identify him/her by... identity. Here's how identity is dealt with in First-Order Logic: <URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-order_logic#Semantics> In other words, identity is mapped to the "sameness" in a domain of discourse. In Second-Order Logic, you can define identity directly: ∀x ∀y x = y ↔ ∀P (P(x) ↔ P(y)) Programming languages are different beasts, of course, but "objects" and "identity" are such important foundational topics that you'd expect a bit more than hand-waving when defining the data model. As a good example of the style I'm looking for, take a look at: <URL: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se7/html/jls-17.html> Marko -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list