Symbols as parameters?

[Alf P. Steinbach]

* Stefan Behnel:
> Alf P. Steinbach, 21.01.2010 09:30:
>> * Martin Drautzburg:
>>>         - to be able to call move(up)
>>>         - having the "up" symbol only in the context of the function call
>>>
>>> So it should look something like this
>>>
>>> ... magic, magic ...
>>> move(up)
>>> ... unmagic, unmagic ...
>>> print up
> 
> Looks like a terribly bad design to me.

That it is, in Python.


>>> This should complain that "up" is not defined during the "print" call,
>>> but not when move() is called. And of course there should be as little
>>> magic as possible.
>>>
>>> Any way to achieve this?
>>>>> def move( direction ):
>> ...   print( "move " + str( direction ) )
>> ...
>>>>> move( "up" )
>> move up
>>>>> class using_directions:
>> ...     up = 42
>> ...     move( up )
>> ...
>> move 42
>>>>> up
>> Traceback (most recent call last):
>>   File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
>> NameError: name 'up' is not defined
>>>>> _
>> Of course it's an abuse of the language. :-)
> 
> And, of course, it's totally useless as the move() function doesn't know
> about the 'up' thing in the first place.

Hm, it seems as if you thought that the example was *literally* what the OP 
should do.

It was not: it just demonstrated the possibility.

Consider replacing the assignment with whatever, or alternatively, consider that 
perhaps 42 is indeed the value of "up" that the move() function knows about.


Cheers & hth.,

- Alf