Something or Nothing^H^H^H^H^H^H^HEmpty

[Anders J. Munch]

"Boris Borcic" <borcis at geneva-link.ch> wrote in message
news:3CB427D3.7020404 at geneva-link.ch...
> Anders J. Munch wrote:
>
> > Pythons truth values are not "Something or Nothing".  The phrase seems
> > to have caught on following Laura's post, but I believe it is
> > misleading.
> >
> > [] and {} are objects, they are objects with identity, and they are
> > mutable objects.  They are empty, but they are by no means "nothing".

> I could discuss the "Something" side of the matter, but I feel the point
> you raise here very much boils down to "the type of zero is a manifest
> information that disallows viewing the typed zero as a nothing".

No, I was specifically discussing how objects created by the expressions
[]and {} are poorly described by "nothingness", and how for this reason
equating pythonic falsity with nothingness can lead you astray, as shown in
the example.

and-I-was-specifically-NOT-entering-into-a-PEP285-flamewar-ly-y'rs,
Anders