Addressing the last element of a list

[Mike Meyer]

[Context recovered from top posting.]

"bonono at gmail.com" <bonono at gmail.com> writes:
> Daniel Crespo wrote:
>> Well, I hope that newcomers to Python don't confuse himselves :)
> This mutable/immutable object and name/variable is confusing.

Only if you have to overcome a conviction that variables behave in a
different way. If you've never seen them behave another way, or have
already gotten used to this model from another language (it dates back
to the 60s, if not the late 50s), then it's no problem. I'm sure the
problem exists in the opposite direction, except that few people
travel that route.

Most OO languages do the name/variable thing, but some of the popular
ones aren't consistent about it, giving some types "special" status,
so that sometimes "a = b" causes b to be copied onto a, and sometimes
it causes a to become a pointer to b. I find a consistent approach is
preferable.

Most OO languages also have the mutable/immutable object thing. The
set of which objects are immutable changes from language to
language. It's really only relevant in this case because the solution
to "I want to change an alias" issue involves using a mutable object.

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