In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Carsten Haese wrote: > On Thu, 2007-10-04 at 11:11 +1300, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote: > >> In Python, all names _are_ variables. They are not "bound" to objects. >> The value of os.path is a pointer. > > No. "os.path" refers to the object that's known as the "path" attribute > of the object known as "os". That object, in turn, is a module.
No, it's a variable. It just happens to contain a pointer to a module. >> It's implemented as a pointer, > > While it is true that namespaces are implemented in CPython as > collections of pointers to PyObject structures, that's an irrelevant > implementation detail. I doubt that they are implemented as pointers in > Jython, PyPy, or IronPython. I'll bet they are. >> it has all the semantics of a pointer. > > No, it doesn't. A pointer means the physical address of a memory > location, which implies that you can overwrite that memory location. Can > you do that in Python? Yes. Look up the definition of "mutable objects". -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list