<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><DIV>On Nov 10, 2007, at Nov 10:5:46 PM, Jason R Briggs wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">Anyway, I'm thinking to keep the original discussion about a variable being a mailbox, and then talk about the Python distinction (see updated version below)<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P class="western" style="font-style: normal;">You can put things (such as a letter or a package) in a mailbox, just as you can put things (numbers, text, lists of numbers and text, etc, etc, etc) in a variable. This mailbox idea is the way many programming languages work.</P><P class="western" style="font-style: normal;">In Python, variables are slightly different. Rather than being a box with things in it, a variable is more like a label which is stuck on the things. We can pull that label off and stick it on something else, or even stick the label on more than one thing.</P><P class="western" style="font-style: normal;"><BR></P></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV>rather than saying "stuck on the things" I'd continue the analogy and say "stuck on the mailbox", and then pull the label off and stick it on another mailbox. Mailboxes can have more than one sticker, but each sticker is unique, so you can ask the question "tell me the contents of the box labeled Fred" and get only 1 answer. (perhaps with an illustration). asking the question "tell me the contents of the box labeled Bob", might give the same contents as Fred (if they are stuck to the same box), or a different contents if stuck to a different box. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>you can also address undefined variables this way, because asking for the contents of a box with the label Fred, when Fred hasn't been stuck on a box, is meaningless.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN>bb</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Monaco; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>-- </DIV><DIV>Brian Blais</DIV><DIV><A href="mailto:bblais@bryant.edu">bblais@bryant.edu</A></DIV><DIV><A href="http://web.bryant.edu/~bblais">http://web.bryant.edu/~bblais</A></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>