[Tutor] Teaching computer programming

Tim Peters tim_one@email.msn.com
Sun, 11 Apr 1999 16:42:53 -0400


[Martijn Faassen]
> ...
> You only change the way they point. labels don't have a content, they
> just point. That's what is confusing about a label; in the real world,
> you label something, and you then don't pull off the sticker and put it
> on another box, generally.

Think of people and their many names.  You stand in line at the bank, and
the name "next, please" eventually gets ripped off the joker in front of you
and passed on to you.  Or the name "my girlfriend/boyfriend" typically gets
applied to several different people before your third marriage <wink>.
Heck, the name "Mr. Peters" even got pasted on me when my dad died.

> You also don't tend to label the same box twice.

Martijn, Mr. Fassen, dad, son, Mrs. Fassen's husband, "hey, you!" -- we all
get lots of labels over the course of a day.

> ...
> But of course it's contrived; there must be a metaphor combining the
> advantage of labels with the advantage of people somewhere. :)

I'm not sure people have *any* advantages <wink>, but names are to people as
references are to objects.  Plus "immutable people" is familiar to anyone
with a boss <wink>.

call-me-uncle-timmy-or-call-me-xyz.a[i-1].who().name-i'm-still-
    id-number-0x037f21b8-ly y'rs  - tim