[Python-Dev] more timely detection of unbound locals

[R. David Murray]

On Tue, 10 May 2011 13:56:58 -0400, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:
> On 5/10/2011 10:59 AM, Nick Coghlan wrote:
> > On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 11:11 PM, R. David Murray<rdmurray at bitdance.com>  wrote:
> >> How about:
> >>
> >> "reference to variable 'y' precedes an assignment that makes it a local
> >> variable"
> >
> > For comparison, the error messages I was able to elicit from 2.7 were
> > as follows:
> >
> > # Module level
> > NameError: name 'bob' is not defined
> >
> > # Function level reference to implicit global
> > NameError: global name 'bob' is not defined
> >
> > # Early reference to local
> > UnboundLocalError: local variable 'bob' referenced before assignment
> 
> I would change this to
> "local name 'bob' used before the assignment that makes it a local name"
> 
> Calling names 'variables' is itself a point of confusion.

Yes, your phrasing is much better.

--
R. David Murray           http://www.bitdance.com