[Python-ideas] For-loop variable scope: simultaneous possession and ingestion of cake

[Neil Toronto]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 3:37 AM, Greg Ewing <greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
>> However, it's not lambda that's broken, it's the for loop.
> 
> I disagree. If you propose to change the for-loop to create new cells,
> you would also need to introduce new syntax for introducing new cells
> in other contexts. While it is common (especially when demonstrating
> the problem) to use a for loop variable in the lambda, the same
> problem exists when the variable referenced is constructed via other
> means.

Like this?

     >>> i = 0
     >>> f = lambda: i
     >>> i = 1
     >>> f()
     1


Whether the for loop is broken really depends on what's meant by 
"broken". Some would say the very idea of cells is broken because 
*values* ought to be closed over. That's bunk, of course. ;) But I think 
most people are comfortable with the above example.

If you unroll the loop, current behavior makes perfect sense:

     >>> f = []
     >>> for i in [0, 1]: f.append(lambda: i)
     ...
     >>> [g() for g in f]
     [1, 1]

     >>> f = []
     >>> i = 0
     >>> f.append(lambda: i)
     >>> i = 1
     >>> f.append(lambda: i)
     >>> [g() for g in f]
     [1, 1]


But the deal with loops is that we don't usually unroll them in our 
heads when we reason about their behavior. We generally consider each 
iteration in isolation, or as an abstract single iteration. (After all, 
it only appears once in the program text.) If iterations need to depend 
on each other, it's almost always done via something that already exists 
outside the loop.

The semantics that best matches that kind of reasoning is fully scoped 
loops. Python 4000 for scoped blocks?

Neil