finding name of instances created

[Jeremy Bowers]

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 21:01:00 -0400, André Roberge wrote:
> etc. Since I want the user to learn Python's syntax, I don't want to
> require him/her to write
> alex = CreateRobot(name = 'alex')
> to then be able to do
> alex.move()

This is just my opinion, but I've been involved with teaching new
programmers before so I think it is an informed one. I don't think you
teach a language by hiding how the language works, no matter what the
intentions.

You should be *minimizing* the magic. You're going to train your students
that Python objects have names (they don't) and that's going to mess them
up later. Actually, it's going to mess them up almost right away, because
how can they have a list of robots like this:

for robot in robots:
	robot.turn_left()

That can't work, right, the command inside the loop can only affect the
robot named "robot", right? 

You can't teach Python if what you're actually teaching them is a variant
that you have created that is used nowhere else on Earth, and is
internally inconsistent to boot (see loop above, the *real* Python
variable semantics conflict with the semantics you are teaching). 

Considering that not a month goes by where someone doesn't post a question
related to this, and it has been a FAQ entry for as long as I've used
Python, I think you are doing a major disservice to your "users" by
training them that objects magically gets the name when assigned. I
strongly urge you to do absolutely no pre-processing of any kind to the
programs they generate. (By which I mean changes to the code; running
pychecker on it would be OK; and I'd urge you to resist the temptation to
process its output, either. Provide a "translation table" if you need to,
but they need to learn to read the real output, too.)

Programming is hard enough with burdening people with "pleasant
falsehoods". Trust your students to handle the truth (and of course
rationally minimize the truth they have to handle, and by using Python
you're off to a great start there). If they can't handle the truth, with
time, effort, and support, they *sure* as hell can't handle lies!