Marc Tompkins wrote:
On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 12:51 AM, Ross Glover <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote:
put, get=os.popen4("dict -d wn " + (word))
Something that can be a little confusing at first (and I haven't seen
anybody mention it yet, so I thought I'd chime in) is that you can
assign multiple variables at the same time. It can be a little
jarring if you aren't used to it. So far you've probably only run
into single assignments: x=5, dog=cat, etc.
In contrast, this line runs a command that returns two values
No No. Python does not have "commands" and can't therefore "run" them.
A better way to express that is: on the right of the = is an expression
which Python evaluates.
, and assigns those values to two variables called "put" and "get".
If you weren't aware that multiple assignments were possible (and that
this is what they look like), then this is a very confusing line of
code indeed.
<rant>
Also - no offense to whoever put up the code you're learning from, but
those variable names were poorly chosen! Since you're just starting
out, you have the opportunity to learn good habits early. Don't use
verbs as variable names! It is almost guaranteed to confuse the heck
out of anybody who has to read your code later - maybe even yourself,
if you don't look at it often.
Variable naming conventions are a very contentious topic - you'll get
fanatical supporters of "x" and "y", or Hungarian notation, or
"VeryDescriptiveVariableName", or whatever, and I'm not going to make
an endorsement... but I would make two hard and fast rules:
- Don't use variable names that conflict with reserved words, e.g.
don't create a list variable and name it "list".
- Don't use variable names that SOUND like they might conflict with
reserved words - like "put" and "get".
</rant>
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