variable declaration

[Eric Pederson]

"Thomas Bartkus" wrote

> As has been pointed out, it's not a big deal for a programmer who's 
> been
> there, done that. But the original posters example is a beginners trap 
> for
> certain.
> 
> *If* Python were a "beginners language", then it would be missing one 
> of
> it's training wheels.


If you put training wheels on your bicycle, it's not going to be any good for moderately serious cycling.  The OP was clearly not new to programming, and it was a hypothetical problem.

We're all adults here (even my 12 year old!) - and we have only beginners in my house.  This purported wart has never bothered me  -- Python is so friendly to develop in.  If this sort of code error bites my 12 year old, I'm sure he will be able to find it and feel good about fixing it.  It's not the kind of code error that has you shutting down your computer at 4AM, perplexed and frustrated - those feelings are usually attributable to subtle, complex, dastardly language features (unexpected behavoirs).  Just my opinion, of course.

Among the great and enlightening posts in this thread, I liked this:

QOTW?
"""We should concentrate on *real* problems, ones that exist in real code, not ones that mostly
exist in wild-eyed prose that consists of predictions of pain and death
that conspicuously fail to occur, no matter how many times they are
repeated or we are exhorted to heed them or face our doom. """

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/messages/178fef06830cc779?thread_id=a75da70b0845b6fe&mode=thread&noheader=1#doc_178fef06830cc779


[Go PyPy!]



Eric Pederson
http://www.songzilla.blogspot.com

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domainNot="@something.com"
domainIs=domainNot.replace("s","z")
ePrefix="".join([chr(ord(x)+1) for x in "do"])
mailMeAt=ePrefix+domainIs
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