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From: Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.python
Subject: Re: What is a function parameter =[] for?
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2015 11:27:35 -0500
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On Tue, 24 Nov 2015 16:10:27 +0100, Antoon Pardon
<antoon.pardon@rece.vub.ac.be> declaimed the following:

>Op 24-11-15 om 15:18 schreef Ned Batchelder:
>
>> 2) In Python, "value" means, what object does a name refer to, or what
>> object did an evaluation produce.
>
>I don't think this is correct because that would imply that objects don't
>change values (since the value would be the object).
>
>When a list is mutated, it's value has changed. That is how the word is
>generally used in python.

	Probably adding jet fuel to the embers but...

	I'd consider "value" to be the /current state/ of the object

	A mutable object has changeable internal state, but remains the same
object.

	Integers, floats, strings are fixed with to the state at time of
creation. Dictionaries, lists, class instances, OTOH, are not fixed to the
state at time of creation.

	Default parameter link a name to an object at the time of definition
but do not "fix" the state of the object.
-- 
	Wulfraed                 Dennis Lee Bieber         AF6VN
    wlfraed@ix.netcom.com    HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/