On 2011-03-03, Jean-Paul Calderone <calderone.jeanp...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Mar 3, 8:16?am, Neil Cerutti <ne...@norwich.edu> wrote: >> On 2011-03-03, Tom Zych <freethin...@pobox.com> wrote: >> >> > Carl Banks wrote: >> >> Perl works deterministically and reliably. ?In fact, pretty much every >> >> language works deterministically and reliably. ?Total non-argument. >> >> > Well, yes. I think the real issue is, how many surprises are >> > waiting to pounce on the unwary developer. C is deterministic >> > and reliable, but full of surprises. >> >> Point of order, for expediency, C and C++ both include lots and >> lots of indeterminate stuff. A piece of specific C code can be >> totally deterministic, but the language is full of undefined >> corners. >> >> > Python is generally low in surprises. Using "if <identifier>" >> > is one place where you do have to think about unintended >> > consequences. >> >> Python eschews undefined behavior. > > C and C++ have standards, and the standards describe what they > don't define. > > Python has implementations. The defined behavior is whatever > the implementation does. Until someone changes it to do > something else. > > It's not much of a comparison.
In addition, you can tap into undefined behavior in Python, as well, it's just harder. So what I should have said is that the determinacy of a language is a degree, not an absolute. C is less determinate than Python by design. -- Neil Cerutti "What we really can learn from this is that bad accounting can yield immense imaginary profits." --Klepsacovic -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list