Python and Flaming Thunder

[Dave Parker]

On Jun 5, 7:57 am, "Dan Upton" <up... at virginia.edu> wrote:
>... wait, x = 8 and x = 10!
> But how can that be, Dave?  You and your elementary kids just told me
> I can't have two values for x...

x = 8 OR x = 10. ;)

By the way, realtime fullscreen 3D graphics are now up and running
under Windows.  Check out the News and Docs at http://www.flamingthunder.com/

On Jun 5, 7:57 am, "Dan Upton" <up... at virginia.edu> wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 9:43 AM, John Salerno <johnj... at nospamgmail.com> wrote:
> > "Dave Parker" <davepar... at flamingthunder.com> wrote in message
> >news:a95c09d9-94c3-4dac-9439-9176038d93d9 at w8g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
> > On May 20, 7:05 pm, Collin <collinye... at shaw.ca> wrote:
>
> > ---
> > For example, consider the two statements:
>
> >     x = 8
> >     x = 10
>
> > The reaction from most math teachers (and kids) was "one of those is
> > wrong because x can't equal 2 different things at the same time".
> > ---
>
> > Aw, come on. I'm a novice programmer but even after reading the most basic
> > of introductions to a programming language I can tell that x is being
> > assigned one value, then another.
>
> > It doesn't seem fair to take statements like the above out of the context of
> > a program and then ask teachers and students about it. This statement:
>
> > 2 + 2 = 4
>
> > means something in the context of an elementary math class, but is clearly
> > not an assignment statement in Python. But I've never encountered anyone who
> > was confused by this distinction, as long as you know where this line
> > belongs.
>
> Yeah, that's sort of like I mentioned earlier in the thread about
> there being a time dependence between the two.  Not only that, but I
> just realized that Dave has trotted out several times the notion of
> representing (and solving) a quadratic equation in FT.  Well, let's
> see... (x-9)**2 - 1 = (too lazy to do the expansion to write in ax**2
> + bx + c format) = 0... solve solve solve... wait, x = 8 and x = 10!
> But how can that be, Dave?  You and your elementary kids just told me
> I can't have two values for x...
>
> ;)- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -