reading files

[Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch]

In <868xuhoveu.fsf at bhuda.mired.org>, Mike Meyer wrote:

> Steven D'Aprano <steve at REMOVETHIScyber.com.au> writes:
>> The text you read is still hanging around, waiting for you to use it. Once
>> you are done with it, you might want to reclaim that memory used,
>> especially if it is a 100MB text file:
>>
>> mytext = ""  # re-bind the name 'mytext' to the empty string
> 
> If you have no further use for the variable, then "del mytext" will
> also free up the memory, and make it clear to the reader that you're
> done with the memory.

It makes clear you're done with the *name* since that's what ``del``
deletes from the namespace, not the object.  I know that you know this but
many people seem to think ``del`` get's rid of the object like a call to
`free()` in C.

Ciao,
	Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch