Puzzling: local variable in recursive function made global?

[Aahz]

In article <mailman.2724.1238086228.11746.python-list at python.org>,
andrew cooke <andrew at acooke.org> wrote:
>
>sorry for the shouting, but someone asks this EVERY DAY AND I CAN'T TAKE
>ANY MORE.

Nobody's forcing you to respond.  Nobody's forcing you to top-post,
either.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by
definition, not smart enough to debug it."  --Brian W. Kernighan