Label-Value (was: Re: Inheriting the @ sign from Ruby)

[Roy Katz]

On Tue, 12 Dec 2000, Fredrik Lundh wrote:

> The real problem is that many Python tutorials fail to explain
> how things work (or hide it somewhere in the exercises), but
> that's not really Guido's fault...

Tough for the new Python programmer, then.  It's nt fair to them. 

> (Hint: Everything is a reference to an object.  Variables are
> named references, not actual objects.  Some objects can be
> modified in place.  Some cannot be modified.  That's all)

Okay! tell me, which are the objects which cannot be modified in place? I
assume these are int's, long's, float's, etc.  Strings, lists, objects and
dictionaries are call-by-reference.  Pardon my choice of diction, but I am
against inventing new terminiologies (modified-in-place??). 

I want to know where this is documented.  Specifically, where is the
dichotomy of ints/longs/floats vs. objects/strings/lists/dictionaries. 

While I'm brainstorming with Python grammar changes, what about a real &
operator.  No more of this hokey is-it-modifiable-in-place-or-not
business.  Explicit control is important. 


Thank you for enlightening me!


Roey