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Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:24:28 -0600
From: Evan Driscoll <edriscoll@wisc.edu>
Subject: Re: copy on write
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Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.python:18942

On 01/13/2012 10:54 AM, Neil Cerutti wrote:
> If you've ever implemented operator=, operator+, and operator+=
> in C++ you'll know how and why they are different.

At the same time, you'd also know that that implementing them in such a 
way that 'a += b' does *not* perform the same action as 'a = a + b' is 
considered very bad-mannered.

In fact, it's often suggested (e.g. in "More Effective C++"'s Item 22, 
though this is not the main thrust of that section) to implement 
operator+ in terms of += to ensure that this is the case:
  MyType operator+ (MyType left, MyType right) {
      MyType copy = left; copy += right; return copy;
  }

> A C++
> programmer would be wondering how either can work on immutable
> objects, and that's where Python's magical rebinding semantics
> come into play.

IMO a C++ programmer wouldn't be likely to wonder that much at all 
because he or she wouldn't view the objects as immutable to begin with. 
:-) 'x = 5; x += 1;' makes perfect sense in C++, just for a somewhat 
different reason.

Evan