Identifying names that hide builtins

[skip at mojam.com]

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Content preview:  The topic of what sorts of things should be warned about by
   the Python byte code compiler or programs like PyLint has floated around
  a couple lists recently. One common mistake seems to be that people inadvertently
   hide builtin names like str or list with local variables. These hidings are
   generally innocuous, but can be confusing when encountered, especially by
   new Python programmers. Hiding builtin names is easy to do, since many builtin
   names are names people would naturally pick for temporary variables ("str"
   as a temp string, "list" as a temp list, etc). "list" deserves special consideration
   because as a builtin function, it is very new, so there will be many occurrences
   of "list" as a local variable that predate its use as a builtin function.
   [...] 

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Subject: Identifying names that hide builtins
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 23:21:06 -0500
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