Python and Schools

[Steven Taschuk]

Quoth Tim Peters:
> [David Eppstein]
  [...]
> >     allocate array A, of dimension n**2, WITHOUT INITIALIZING IT
> >         (is this possible in pure python?)
> 
> It shouldn't be possible:  if you find a way to do it, it would be
> considered a security bug.  No memory is really uninitialized -- if Python
> gave you read access to n**2 bytes in constant time, it would be revealing
> to you the state left behind by some other function (or user, or process).

Hm... it doesn't have to let us *read* from the uninitialized
memory.  Just as long as it lets us write to it, and later read
from the spots we've written to.

This is of dubious usefulness, of course.

-- 
Steven Taschuk                           staschuk at telusplanet.net
"I'm always serious, never more so than when I'm being flippant."
                            -- _Look to Windward_, Iain M. Banks