[Tutor] was no subject, getting started

[dman]

[ I missed the beginning of this -- messages with "(no subject)" as
  the subject are automatically dropped on my system ]

On Sat, Mar 02, 2002 at 04:56:09PM +0100, Charlie Clark wrote:
| On 2002-03-02 at 13:10:03, tutor-request@python.org wrote:
 
| > money = 1000
| > none = 100
| > print money + none
| 
| Nobody else mentioned this but "None" is a reserved word in Python: it 

It is not a reserved word.  It is a built-in name.  The difference is
evident in the following lines :

None = "yo"
for = "yo"

The former works and is totally legal.  I don't recommend it, however,
since it creates a local variable that "overshadows" the built-in
variable.

The latter doesn't work because "for" is a reserved word (aka keyword).

| stands for an object with no content so it is not the same as "0". Python 
| is case sensitive so your variable "none" is different to "None". You can 
| overwrite such words in Python without raising an error but this is quite 
| likely to cause confusion and thus problems.
| 
| The people who write Python are careful not to create too many reserved 
| words so that the chances of this happening are rare. Ones to watch out for 
| are "list" and "type"

The moral is correct, but the details are not.  "list" and "type" are
built-ins, not keywords.

-D

-- 

Stay away from a foolish man,
for you will not find knowledge on his lips.
        Proverbs 14:7