Bug in python!? persistent value of an optional parameter in function!

[George Sakkis]

On Mar 7, 10:24 pm, Paul Rubin <http://phr...@NOSPAM.invalid> wrote:
> John Nagle <n... at animats.com> writes:
> >     True.  It would make sense to disallow mutable values as
> > initial values for optional arguments.  The present behavior is silly.
>
> That would be the worst of both worlds.  The main alternative to the
> present behavior is re-computing the default value every time the
> function is entered.

One can do this is today's Python if he's so inclined, albeit with a
more verbose syntax: http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/502206

George