[Tutor] Python Book Recommendations [Was:[Re: Security]]

[bhaaluu]

Greetings,

The site in question ( http://osl.iu.edu/~lums/swc/ )
is listed at ( http://python.org/ ) on the right-hand
sidebar entitled: Using Python For...

# Education
# pyBiblio, Software Carpentry Course

Perhaps these concerns should be directed to either the
maintainers of Python.Org ( http://python.org/ ), or to
the author of the Software Carpentry Course?

The course is available under an open license, AND
This work [SWC] has been made possible by a grant from the Python
Software Foundation, and by support from the University of Toronto.

Your concerns sound serious enough to warrant corrections being made
to the tutorial?
-- 
bhaaluu at gmail dot com

On 8/16/07, wesley chun <wescpy at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Python copies variables' values when passing them to functions
> >   a.. Since Booleans, numbers, and strings can't be updated, a
> > function can't affect its caller's values
> >   b.. But if you pass a list to a function, the function will operate
> > on the original list, not a copy
> > ----------------
> >
> > The first line is plain wrong. Python doesn't copy values it always uses references,
> > its just that some objects are immutable while others are mutable. This is a
> > common cause of confusion for beginners and this statement won't help. And
> > the last line suggests that Python behaves inconsistently (which it doesn't) but
> > doesn't clarify any of the "exceptions" other than lists - the same is actually
> > true of any mutable type
>
>
> i completely agree with alan on this.  whoever wrote it does *not*
> know Python very well.  they seem to be "guessing" based on their
> previous experience with other programming languages that are
> "categorized" into either "call by reference" or "call by value".
>
> in python, *everything* is call by reference, but the reality is that
> the mutability is the real source of truth.  a simple call to id()
> from the caller and the called function will show that they are indeed
> the exact same object.  (why else would i spend an entire chapter on
> this in Core Python?!?)  getting confused by both of these (call by XX
> vs. mutability) is the source of many many bugs in Python, and if you
> can get past this, those bugs would never exist (or have never
> existed), leaving you in a much more peaceful state of mind.  :-)
>
> cheers,
> -- wesley
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> "Core Python Programming", Prentice Hall, (c)2007,2001
>     http://corepython.com
>
> wesley.j.chun :: wescpy-at-gmail.com
> python training and technical consulting
> cyberweb.consulting : silicon valley, ca
> http://cyberwebconsulting.com
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