On 9/25/17 9:15 AM, Antoon Pardon wrote:
Op 25-09-17 om 14:53 schreef Ned Batchelder:
On 9/25/17 8:24 AM, Steve D'Aprano wrote:
On Mon, 25 Sep 2017 08:05 pm, Antoon Pardon wrote:
Pass by reference doesn't imply being able to
write a swap function.
Really. Do you have a counter-example?
A swap function as possible in pascal requires two conditions.
1) Pass by reference
2) Copy-over assignment.
I don't know what you think "copy-over assignment" means, but none of
DuckDuckGo, Google, Bing or Yahoo finds that term except in your post.
Would we be able to end these interminable debates if we just agree
that we all know how it works, and it isn't important to come up with
a simple name for what it is?
I'm not sure that Steve knows how it works. When he denies that the assignment
is
an alias operation in Python that casts an important doubt.
I can assure you that Steve knows how it works. Again, the disagreement
is almost certainly over the semantics of the word "alias."
It seems clear to me that "value" and "reference" are wildly vague
terms, used slightly differently by each language, and by different
people even in the same language if they have different perspectives.
Well in that case and considering your remark above, maybe the residents
shouldn't be so eager to deny to newbees that python has call by reference.
You're still trying to get people to agree to a label like "call by
reference." This is where the disagreement comes from.
--Ned.
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