learning python ...

[Cameron Simpson]

On 25May2021 05:53, hw <hw at adminart.net> wrote:
>That seems like an important distinction.  I've always been thinking of 
>variables that get something assigned to them, not as something that is 
>being assigned to something.

They are what you thought. But it's references to objects what are being 
passed around.  C is a deliberately "close to the machine" language, and 
things a CPU can store in a register are natural types (ints of various 
sizes, etc). But consider a C string:

    char *s = "foo";

The compiler here allocates some char storage, puts "foo\0" in it, and 
puts a reference in "s".

    char *t = strcpy(s)
    char *t2;
    t2 = s;
    t2 = t;

Here "s", "t" and "t2" are all of type (char*), and store references.  
When you pass "s" or "t" around, eg as above in an assignment, or when 
you pass it to a function, you're not copying the storage, just the 
reference.

Same with Python, except that all the basic types like int and float are 
also done with references.

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <cs at cskk.id.au>