why cannot assign to function call

[Derek Martin]

On Fri, Jan 02, 2009 at 09:05:51PM +0100, Bruno Desthuilliers wrote:
>> Python seems rather weird, and I think from the frequency
>> with which these discussions occur on this list, clearly it *IS*
>> difficult for a neophyte Python programmer to understand the
>> assignment model.
>
> Took me about half an hour to grasp, not even being "CS grad" (nor  
> whathever "grad" FWIW). By that time, I had a couple monthes working  
> experience with VB, and had learned (but never seriously used) bits of  
> C, C++, Java and Pascal.

It took me about a half a second to grasp the "named bins" concept --
i.e. as soon as I was finished reading the words that explained it I
understood it, so I'd say that based on your half-hour number,
Python's model is substantially more complicated.  

My own experience was kind of similar...  When I read about Python's
model I didn't understand it the first time around, had to re-read the
section I read that described it, and then had to play with it to see
for myself how it worked.  I'd estimate it took 10 minutes.  I'm not a
CS grad either (my degree is in information technology) but I did take
the first two years of CS classes at my local college (as a bridge to
a masters degree in CS, which I never completed), and I've been
programming as a hobbyist, in school, and in my profession for 25
years.  I would argue that ideally, it should not take an experienced
programmer 10 minutes to understand variable assignment. :)  [Note
that I'm including the semantics for passing arguments to functions as
part of "assignment" for purposes of this discussion.]

-- 
Derek D. Martin
http://www.pizzashack.org/
GPG Key ID: 0x81CFE75D

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