> Python's object model, assignment semantics, and call-by-object > mechanism, and that name, come from CLU. Whether Guido knew of it > directly or not, I do not know. To the extent that the above is part of > the heart of Python, I think Steven's statement stands pretty well.
Why do you say that? ISTM that Python is much closer to Smalltalk than to CLU in its object model. CLU is statically typed (and it is important to its notion of program correctness that it is statically typed); Smalltalk and Python aren't. In addition, Smalltalk and Python have inheritance; CLU (deliberately) doesn't. Liskov reported that she didn't know about Smalltalk until 1976. I believe that Python's, CLU's, and Smalltalk's assignment semantics actually all come from Simula. I would claim the same for the call-by-object mechanism - except that this is probably best described as coming from LISP (in the sense of caller and callee sharing references). FWIW, Simula has also inheritance, but that specific notion of inheritance did not transfer to any other language, except for Beta. Regards, Martin -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
