Finding the instance reference of an object

[Aaron Brady]

On Nov 19, 12:28 pm, Joe Strout <j... at strout.net> wrote:
> On Nov 19, 2008, at 11:05 AM, Douglas Alan wrote:
> > (2) It is also unarguably true that saying that Python or Java use
> >    "call-by-value", and saying nothing more is going to be profoundly
> >    confusing to anyone who is learning these languages.
>
> Perhaps (unless they've already learned this from one of the other  
> languages).

If they learn the bad definition first, we can't go back and change
it.  We can correct it for them for the future.  Don't appeal to hot-
shot authorities, like the ones that don't acknowledge that there were
already people using terms they hijacked for their own cult following.

> >   Q. What type of calling semantics do Python and Java use?
>
> >   A. Call-by-sharing.
>
> Fair enough, but if the questioner then says "WTF is call-by-sharing,"  
> we should answer "call-by-sharing is the term we prefer for call-by-
> value in the case where the value is an object reference (as is always  
> the case in Python)."

But if someone says, 'What is call-by-reference?', do you answer, 'C-b-
r is the term we prefer for call-by-value in the case where the value
is a variable reference'?