[Tutor] put?

[bob gailer]

Marc Tompkins wrote:
> On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 12:51 AM, Ross Glover <ross at ross.mayfirst.org 
> <mailto:ross at ross.mayfirst.org>> wrote:
>
>         put, get=os.popen4("dict -d wn " + (word))
>
> Something that can be a little confusing at first (and I haven't seen 
> anybody mention it yet, so I thought I'd chime in) is that you can 
> assign multiple variables at the same time.  It can be a little 
> jarring if you aren't used to it.  So far you've probably only run 
> into single assignments:  x=5, dog=cat, etc.
> In contrast, this line runs a command that returns two values

No No. Python does not have "commands" and can't therefore "run" them.

A better way to express that is: on the right of the = is an expression 
which Python evaluates.
> , and assigns those values to two variables called "put" and "get". 
> If you weren't aware that multiple assignments were possible (and that 
> this is what they look like), then this is a very confusing line of 
> code indeed.
>
> <rant>
> Also - no offense to whoever put up the code you're learning from, but 
> those variable names were poorly chosen!  Since you're just starting 
> out, you have the opportunity to learn good habits early.  Don't use 
> verbs as variable names!  It is almost guaranteed to confuse the heck 
> out of anybody who has to read your code later - maybe even yourself, 
> if you don't look at it often. 
> Variable naming conventions are a very contentious topic - you'll get 
> fanatical supporters of "x" and "y", or Hungarian notation, or 
> "VeryDescriptiveVariableName", or whatever, and I'm not going to make 
> an endorsement... but I would make two hard and fast rules:
> -  Don't use variable names that conflict with reserved words, e.g. 
> don't create a list variable and name it "list". 
> -  Don't use variable names that SOUND like they might conflict with 
> reserved words - like "put" and "get".
>
> </rant>
>  
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-- 
Bob Gailer
919-636-4239 Chapel Hill, NC