Finding the instance reference of an object

[Gabriel Genellina]

En Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:16:04 -0200, Dale Roberts <gooberts at gmail.com>  
escribió:

> So, then, what to tell a C++ programmer about how Python passes  
> arguments? You say: tell them Python only passes by value. I disagree,  
> because I think that would confuse them. Rather than try to map C++  
> conventions onto Python, I think it is more useful to just tell them how  
> it really works. Maybe a few statements like this:
>
>    All values in Python are objects, from simple integers up to complex
>    user-defined classes.
>
>    An assignment in Python binds a variable name to an object. The
>    internal "value" of the variable is the memory address of an object,
>    and can be seen with id(var), but is rarely needed in practice.
>
>    The "value" that gets passed in a Python function call is the address
>    of an object (the id()).
>
>    When making a function call, myfunc(var), the value of id(var) can
>    never be changed by the function.
>
> Not sure if these are the best. To get into much more detail, you have  
> to start explaining mutable and immutable objects and such.

I don't think the above explanation is desirable, nor needed. Objects in  
Python don't have an "address" - it's just a CPython implementation  
detail. The fact that id() returns that address is just an implementation  
detail too. The calling mechanism should be explained without refering to  
those irrelevant details.

-- 
Gabriel Genellina