Replacement for keyword 'global' good idea? (e.g. 'modulescope' or 'module' better?)

[Mike Meyer]

"John Roth" <newsgroups at jhrothjr.com> writes:
> <seberino at spawar.navy.mil> wrote in message
> news:1123270841.195692.21470 at g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> A much better idea would be to fix the underlying
> situation that makes the global statement necessary.

You can't "fix" this. This code (in some python-like langauge that
isn't python):

x = 23

def fun():
    x = 25
    # Rest of code

has two possible interpretations.

Either the occurrence of x in fun references the global, or it
references a local that shadows the global. There are reasons for
wanting both behaviors. So you have to have some way to distinguish
between the two, and you want it to happen per variable, not per
function. The method with the fewest keywords is to have one be the
default, and some keyword that triggers the other.

So the only way to remove the global statement would be to have some
way to mark the other interpretation, with say a "local"
decleration. I thik that would be much worse than "global". For one
thing, most variables would be local whether or not they are
declared. Second, having an indication that you need to check module
globals in the function is a better than not having that clue there.

        <mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>			http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.