[Python-Dev] Product iteration

[Jeremy Hylton]

Moshe Zadka writes:
 > On Wed, 26 Jul 2000, Guido van Rossum wrote:
 > 
 > > > OK, how's that: inner functions have weak reference to variables in the
 > > > same scope
 > > > 
 > > > def f():
 > > > 	x = 1
 > > > 	def g():
 > > > 		pass
 > > 
 > > Insert "print x" in the body of g, and "return g" in the body of f.
 > 
 > What are you trying to do, simulate classes via closures? I don't see any
 > reason for this to work. 
 > 

There's not simulation going on.  He's just expecting closures to
work.  I think that any proposal for changed scoping needs to do
lexical scoping properly, including closures.  If it doesn't, I vote
-1. 

The argument about finalization is specious.  You should not write
code that depends on current finalization semantics to do things like
closing files.  It's relying on an implementation-dependent feature
that is not part of the language spec.  (Just try it on JPython.)

Jeremy