The “does Python have variables?” debate

[Ethan Furman]

On 05/08/2014 12:14 PM, Ben Finney wrote:
> Marko Rauhamaa writes:
>
>> Point being, shunning the term "variable" is counterproductive. Python
>> variables are nothing special and calling them "variables" doesn't
>> mislead anybody.
>
> Okay, that's your point. You haven't backed it up, so I'll ignore it for now.

I'll speak up as a data point:  When I came to Python my only experience with variables was: it's a box that holds a 
value.  So it took me a while, and a really, really good explanation with beautiful ascii art, to explain to me how 
Python variables work.

The astute reader will notice I still called them variables.  Had they been called something else I may have discovered 
sooner what the difference was, but I don't think it's worth mangling the (English) language.  As a newcomer to Python I 
also didn't know that functions were first class objects, so it was a while before I realized the cool things you could 
do because of that -- yet we still call them functions, not, for example, callable objects.

Python has variables -- they just work more like aliases.  (Okay, who wants to make the graphic of a Python object in a 
mug shot? ;)

I guess my point is, calling aliases variables wasn't the misleading part, it was my lack of knowledge that there was 
more than one kind of variable possible.  Such ignorance is only solved by learning different languages, and isn't aided 
if every language has their own unique terminology.

--
~Ethan~