Opening files without closing them

[3c273]

"Erik Max Francis" <max at alcyone.com> wrote in message
news:wPCdnSJq7ObP5pbZnZ2dnUVZ_sSdnZ2d at speakeasy.net...
> Note quite.  The assignment of the resources to its variable needs to be
> done before the try:
>
> f = open(file)
> try:
>     contents = f.read()
> finally:
>     f.close()
>
Pardon the newbie question, but could you explain why? I have been doing it
the same way as the OP and would like to know the difference. Thank you.
Louis