lambda

Steve Holden steve at holdenweb.com
Fri Jan 14 11:40:13 EST 2005


Antoon Pardon wrote:

> Op 2005-01-13, hanz schreef <hanzspam at yahoo.com.au>:
> 
>>Antoon Pardon wrote:
>>
>>>So if I have a call with an expression that takes more than
>>>one line, I should assign the expression to a variable and
>>>use the variable in the call?
>>
>>Yes, that's sometimes a good practice and can clarify
>>the call.
>>
>>
>>>But wait if I do that, people will tell me how bad that it
>>>is, because it will keep a reference to the value which
>>>will prevent the garbage collector from harvesting this
>>>memory.
>>
Of course, unless that reference is in the global scope of the __main__ 
module its lifetime will be transient anyway. If the reference is stored 
in a function's local variable then unless its value is returned from 
the function it will become available for garbage collection when the 
function returns.

>>Nobody will tell you that it's bad.
> 
> 
> Sorry, someone already did. If I recall correctly it
> was Alex Martelli.
> 
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds". Rules are made 
to be broken. Besides which, if you don't understand the language 
environment, rules alone will do you very little good. Try to focus a 
little more on principles and a little less on minutiae.

regards
  Steve
-- 
Steve Holden               http://www.holdenweb.com/
Python Web Programming  http://pydish.holdenweb.com/
Holden Web LLC      +1 703 861 4237  +1 800 494 3119




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