confusion about opening files

[Andrew Koenig]

Erik> Because there are two different open functions here.  One is in the
Erik> builtins, one is in the os module.  They are not the same:

In fact, the builtin "open" function is now called "file"; the name
"open" is there only for backward compatibility.

So the original example:

>>> import os
>>> file = os.open("e:\\d12", "r")

is bad news for two reasons:

        1) It uses os.open when it should use the builtin function;
        2) It uses a variable named "file", which will step on the
           name of the builtin function.

If you write it this way:

        # no need to import os here
        myfile = file("e:\\d12", "r")

you may find the resulting code easier to understand.

-- 
Andrew Koenig, ark at research.att.com, http://www.research.att.com/info/ark