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Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2012 18:24:57 +1000
Subject: Re: What's wrong with this code?
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:25965

On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 5:47 PM, Ulrich Eckhardt
<ulrich.eckhardt@dominolaser.com> wrote:
> There is one model that has helped me much understanding how Python ticks
> and that is the model of name tags. The code "a = 1" creates an integer with
> value 1 and attaches a tag with "a" written on it using a small piece of
> rope.

A double strand of rope, I think. If it were one strand, we'd write "a - 1". :)

> [0] Note that in almost all cases, when referring to a tag, Python
> implicitly operates on the object attached to it. One case (the only one?)
> where it doesn't is the "del" statement.

I'd say that del is more closely related to assignment than anything
else. You can go "a = None" to mark that a now points to nothing, or
you can "del a" to de-rope a altogether.

ChrisA