why del is not a function or method?

[bartc]

On 16/10/2017 16:58, Stefan Ram wrote:
> Xue Feng <xf.lotus at yahoo.com> writes:
>> I wonder why 'del' is not a function or method.
> 
>    Assume,
> 
> x = 2.
> 
>    When a function »f« is called with the argument »x«,
>    this is written as
> 
> f( x )
> 
>    . The function never gets to see the name »x«, just
>    its boundee (value) »2«. So, it cannot delete the
>    name »x«.
> 
>    Also, the function has no access to the scope of »x«,
>    and even more so, it cannot make any changes in it.
> 
>    Therefore, even a call such as
> 
> f( 'x' )
> 
>    will not help much.

What about del team[2]?

There is no name involved here, and even a reference to team[2] won't help.

Presumably there is no other way to do an in-place deletion of an 
element of a list. (Inserting an element is different.)

-- 
Bartc