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Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2011 23:15:01 +0100
Subject: Re: Why no warnings when re-assigning builtin names?
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
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Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.python:11476

On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 10:52 PM, Gerrat Rickert
<grickert@coldstorage.com> wrote:
> With surprising regularity, I see program postings (eg. on StackOverflow)
> from inexperienced Python users =A0accidentally re-assigning built-in nam=
es.
>
> For example, they=92ll innocently call some variable, =93list=94, and ass=
ign a
> list of items to it.

It's actually masking, not reassigning. That may make it easier or
harder to resolve the issue.

If you want a future directive that deals with it, I'd do it the other
way - from __future__ import mask_builtin_warning or something - so
the default remains as it currently is. But this may be a better job
for a linting script.

ChrisA