Something or Nothing^H^H^H^H^H^H^HEmpty
Anders J. Munch
andersjm at dancontrol.dk
Wed Apr 10 08:38:19 EDT 2002
"Boris Borcic" <borcis at geneva-link.ch> wrote in message
news:3CB427D3.7020404 at geneva-link.ch...
> Anders J. Munch wrote:
>
> > Pythons truth values are not "Something or Nothing". The phrase seems
> > to have caught on following Laura's post, but I believe it is
> > misleading.
> >
> > [] and {} are objects, they are objects with identity, and they are
> > mutable objects. They are empty, but they are by no means "nothing".
> I could discuss the "Something" side of the matter, but I feel the point
> you raise here very much boils down to "the type of zero is a manifest
> information that disallows viewing the typed zero as a nothing".
No, I was specifically discussing how objects created by the expressions
[]and {} are poorly described by "nothingness", and how for this reason
equating pythonic falsity with nothingness can lead you astray, as shown in
the example.
and-I-was-specifically-NOT-entering-into-a-PEP285-flamewar-ly-y'rs,
Anders
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