About the implementation of del in Python 3

[Steve D'Aprano]

On Fri, 7 Jul 2017 07:10 am, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:

> Steve D'Aprano <steve+python at pearwood.info>:
> 
>> An address is a concrete location or place, in other words a physical
>> position in some space, while identity is the abstract state or
>> quality of being identical (sameness), in other words a state of
>> being.
> 
> Whether id() returns one such thing or not can't be discerned by a
> Python program. 

Since the id() function isn't documented as returning an address, I'm not sure
why you think that it is significant that Python programs can't discern such a
thing.


> What's more, for any compliant implementation of id(), 
> you can interpret the returned number as an address in some address
> space (whether it's useful or not to interpret it that way).

You could equally interpret it as:

- the IQ of the person reading the output;
- the number of legs on the average insect;
- the number of times per day the average teenager says "I don't even";
- the number of days in a month;
- the amount of memory in terabytes required to store that object;
- the number of atoms of hydrogen in Moscow; or
- cost in US dollars in lost productivity caused by this discussion

whether it's useful or not to interpret it that way. You are free to interpret
it as anything you like, whether or not it is useful is up to you.


-- 
Steve
“Cheer up,” they said, “things could be worse.” So I cheered up, and sure
enough, things got worse.