Python "why" questions

[Roald de Vries]

On Aug 15, 2010, at 1:00 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> It would be if pointers and arrays were the same thing in C. Only  
> they’re
> not, quite. Which somewhat defeats the point of trying to make them  
> look the
> same, don’t you think?

How are they not the same?

The code snippet (in C/C++) below is valid, so arrays are just  
pointers. The only difference is that the notation x[4] reserves space  
for 4 (consecutive) ints, and the notation *y doesn't.

int x[4];
int *y = x;

Moreover, the following is valid (though unsafe) C/C++:

int *x;
int y = x[4];

Cheers, Roald