Late-binding of function defaults (was Re: What is a function parameter =[] for?)

[BartC]

On 25/11/2015 22:16, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
> BartC <bc at freeuk.com>:
>
>> I'm interested in language design because that's what I've done on and
>> off for over 30 years. And I'm discussing some design decisions in
>> Python.
>
> That *is* a fun ambition, useful or not.

(At the moment, it's mostly fun. But in the past I actually needed the 
languages to do my job (designing microprocessor hardware). The 
scripting languages came a bit later, to go with my 3D graphics 
applications.)

> You seem to have been surprised with some advanced concepts and idioms
> in this discussion. Really, apart from its indentation syntax, Python
> offers no unique or even rare software engineering concepts (Python's
> emphasis duck-typing comes close to being distinctive). You'll find
> equivalents in quite many languages, and in active, money-making uses.

Maybe you're too familiar with it. But the idea of /executing/ the 
function and other definitions in a file, instead of they just being 
there, is novel.

-- 
Bartc