Python id() does not return an address [was Re: why () is () and [] is [] work in other way?]

[Chris Angelico]

On Sat, Apr 28, 2012 at 3:51 AM, Adam Skutt <askutt at gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes, there is a way.  You add a function deref() to the language.  In
> CPython, that simply treats the passed value as a memory address and
> treats it as an object, perhaps with an optional check.  In Jython,
> it'd access a global table of numbers as keys with the corresponding
> objects as values, and return them.  The value of id() is absolutely
> an address, even in Jython. The fact the values can move about is
> irrelevant.

Python already as dereferenceable addresses. Look.

def address(obj,table=[]):
	for i,o in enumerate(table):
		if obj is o: return i
	table.append(obj)
	return len(table)-1

def deref(addr):
	return address.__defaults__[0][addr]

You can take the address of an object (interning it, effectively), and
later dereference it. Proves nothing.

ChrisA