Is 'everything' a refrence or isn't it?

[Claudio Grondi]

Dan Sommers wrote:
> On Wed, 04 Jan 2006 22:38:06 -0500,
> "Stuart D. Gathman" <stuart at bmsi.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>>On Wed, 04 Jan 2006 10:54:17 -0800, KraftDiner wrote:
>>
>>>I was under the assumption that everything in python was a refrence...
>>>
>>>so if I code this:
>>>lst = [1,2,3]
>>>for i in lst:
>>>if i==2:
>>>i = 4
>>>print lst
>>>
>>>I though the contents of lst would be modified.. (After reading that
>>>'everything' is a refrence.)
>>>...
>>>Have I misunderstood something?
> 
> 
>>It might help to do a translation to equivalent C:
> 
> 
>>int _i1 = 1;
>>int _i2 = 2;
>>int _i3 = 3;
>>int _i4 = 4;
>>int* lst[NLST] = { &_i1,&_i2,&_i3 };
> 
> 
> Okay so far.
> 
> 
>>int _idx;	/* internal iterator */
>>for (_idx = 0; _idx < NLST; ++_idx) {
>>  int *i = lst[_idx];
> 
> 
> [snip]
> 
> That's the C idiom
> 
>     for i in range(len(lst))
> 
> we all complain about here.  How about (untested):
> 
> /*
> iterate over the list, binding i to each item in succession;
> _idx is internal to the interpreter;
> separate the definition of i from the assignment of i for clarity
> */
> 
> int **_idx;
> for( _idx = lst; _idx < lst + NLST; ++_idx ) {
>     int *i;
>     i = *_idx;
> 
>     /* compare "the item to which i is bound" to "a constant" */
>     if( *i == *(&_i2) )
>         /* rebind i to _i4 */
>         i = &_i4;
> }
> 
> 
>>for (_idx = 0; _idx < NLST; ++_idx)
>>  printf("%d\n",*lst[_idx]);
> 
> 
> for( _idx = lst; _idx < lst + NLST; ++_idx ) {
>     int *i = *_idx;
>     printf( "%d\n", *i );
> }
> 
> Regards,
> Dan
> 
This code appears to me better than that original one, but it exceeds at 
the moment my capacity to check it. Weren't it a good idea to use PyPy 
to translate this Python code into C? It should exactly show how it 
works, right?
I would be glad to hear how to accomplish this, because I have heard, it 
is not easy to separate and use that part of PyPy which does the 
translation.

Claudio