Re: What does it mean for Python to have “constants”?
Dennis Lee Bieber writes:
>> (Python does not have anything that one might consider a true constant
>> -- other than the language defined singletons: None, and maybe by now
>> True and False).
> Python now deals with those by making the names keywords::
>
> >>> True = object()
> File "", line 1
> SyntaxError: can't assign to keyword
> >>> False = object()
> File "", line 1
> SyntaxError: can't assign to keyword
> >>> None = object()
> File "", line 1
> SyntaxError: can't assign to keyword
>
> which seems to rather avoid the question of whether they are “constants”
> as would be understood by newcomers experienced with that term in other
> languages.
>
This is true for Python 3, but the OP wrote his program in Python 2. In
Python 2, you can do this (unfortunately):
>>> True, False = False, True
>>> if False:
... print("DOH!")
...
DOH!
--
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What does it mean for Python to have “constants”? (was: variable scope of class objects)
Dennis Lee Bieber writes: > (Python does not have anything that one might consider a true constant > -- other than the language defined singletons: None, and maybe by now > True and False). Python now deals with those by making the names keywords:: >>> True = object() File "", line 1 SyntaxError: can't assign to keyword >>> False = object() File "", line 1 SyntaxError: can't assign to keyword >>> None = object() File "", line 1 SyntaxError: can't assign to keyword which seems to rather avoid the question of whether they are “constants” as would be understood by newcomers experienced with that term in other languages. -- \ “Crime is contagious… if the government becomes a lawbreaker, | `\ it breeds contempt for the law.” —Justice Louis Brandeis | _o__) | Ben Finney -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
