Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder1.hal-mli.net!nx02.iad01.newshosting.com!209.197.12.242.MISMATCH!nx01.iad01.newshosting.com!newshosting.com!news-out.readnews.com!transit3.readnews.com!panix!not-for-mail From: Grant Edwards Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Subject: Re: What other languages use the same data model as Python? Date: Thu, 5 May 2011 16:48:58 +0000 (UTC) Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC Lines: 36 Message-ID: References: <4dbd1dbf$0$29991$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <77f64071-b288-404c-8280-b2c61ba77f06@n10g2000yqf.googlegroups.com> <4dc2be25$0$29991$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: dsl.comtrol.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: reader1.panix.com 1304614138 20079 64.122.56.22 (5 May 2011 16:48:58 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@panix.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 5 May 2011 16:48:58 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: slrn/pre0.9.9-102 (Linux) Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.python:4759 On 2011-05-05, Steven D'Aprano wrote: > On Thu, 05 May 2011 14:14:22 +0000, Grant Edwards wrote: > >> On 2011-05-05, harrismh777 wrote: >>> Grant Edwards wrote: >>>> The "pass by value" and "pass by reference" parameter passing >>>> mechanisms are pretty well defined, and C uses "pass by value". >>> >>> Yeah, that's kind-a funny, cause I'm one of the guys (old farts) that >>> helped define them.... >> >> I give up. You don't seem to understand the C language defintion or >> what is commonly meant by "pass by reference". > > > In fairness, he's not the only one. M Harris has twice now linked to an > IBM site that describes pass-by-reference in C in terms of passing a > pointer to the argument you want as the argument. Admittedly, doing so > gives you almost the same behaviour, except that you have to dereference > the pointers yourself. > > That's a pretty big difference though, and gets to the core of the > argument: it's a bit like arguing that manual cars are fitted with > exactly the same automatic transmission as auto cars, it's just that > you have to engage the clutch and shift gears yourself. I like that analogy. "My car has an automatic transmission except you have to shift gears yourself with that lever and that it has a clutch operated by that pedal instead of a hydrostatic torque converter." -- Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! ... bleakness at ... desolation ... plastic gmail.com forks ...