Well, the listed variables are "global" to the current local scope. I find the rename argument a bit specious. If I rename a function I have to change all the references to it today. This is just one more. Since "global" is a declarative statement, the compiler can tell you immediately that it can't find the old function name.
Right, I tend to agree.
Guido> I saw a variant where the syntax was Guido> 'global' vars 'in' 'def' Guido> which solves that concern (though not particularly elegantly).
I don't see how that can work though. What does 'def' mean in this case? There can be multiple lexically enclosing functions, any of which have the same local variable x which you might want modify.
Yeah, but usually that's not a problem. The compiler knows about all those x-es, and uses the innermost (nearest) one. This matches what it does when *referencing* a non-local variable, which doesn't need a global statement. --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)