SpreadTooThin wrote: [...] > I don't understand why python would insist that everything must be a > refrence...
We can tell that :) > It is of course helpful sometime but other times its not... and now > I'm sorta out > of luck... There are very good reasons for Python's namespace model. Sure it's different from some other languages, but it's actually been some people's preferred semantics for a very long time now (the recently-deceased Ralph Griswold, may he rest in peace, chose a very similar model for Icon. > I don't know how to make this structure immutable... Pickle it? Seems > very > inefficient to me... > Every time I pass a variable now I will worry that it will be changed > by the function... > I haven't worried about things like this since the very early days of > BASIC.... > I don't know.. maybe I have more to learn. > You do. Firstly, learn to leave your paranoia outside your programming life. If a function or method makes undocumented changes to its mutable parameters then it needs changing (or its documentation does). Adequate testing should reveal such nonsenses before release. regards Steve -- Steve Holden +44 150 684 7255 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com Skype: holdenweb http://holdenweb.blogspot.com Recent Ramblings http://del.icio.us/steve.holden -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list