Can global variable be passed into Python function?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 01 Mar 2014 20:25:51 +0200, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:

> Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info>:
> 
>> It seems to me that he's just assuming that symbols ought to be
>> singletons, hence his focus on identity rather than equality.
> 
> Yes.
> 
> A practical angle is this: if I used strings as symbols and compared
> them with "==", logically I shouldn't define them as constants 

That doesn't follow. There is no logical connection between using named 
constants (well, pseudo-constants, constants by convention only) and ==. 
You can do both, or neither, or either one, whichever suits you.

You might as well say that when you have float constants:

TAU = 6.283185307179586

that "logically" implies that you are prohibited in asking whether 
another float is less than or greater than TAU.

[...]
> The principal (practical) problem with that is that I might make a typo
> and write:
> 
>            if self.state == "IDLE ":

Then used named constants. 

    if self.state == IDLE:


See how easy it is? Just replace "is" with == unless you have a good 
reason for caring about identity instead of equality.




-- 
Steven D'Aprano
http://import-that.dreamwidth.org/