Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!usenet.blueworldhosting.com!feeder01.blueworldhosting.com!border2.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!ottix-news.ottix.net!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!panix!roy
From: Roy Smith <roy@panix.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.python
Subject: Re: how to get the ordinal number in list
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 18:01:08 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC
Lines: 30
Message-ID: <roy-C60FDA.18010810082014@news.panix.com>
References: <53E658CD.5020904@gmail.com> <CACwCsY7icE7X2upr0auNhe37xh5HdC09Ad4yaetqpo+fcoBRYg@mail.gmail.com> <mailman.12780.1407551775.18130.python-list@python.org> <53e59035$0$29998$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <338e8fb0-c9ec-462a-b560-1c1ff77de17e@googlegroups.com> <roy-3060CA.11342209082014@news.panix.com> <b5ac5b12-cda7-464e-9c14-63ef184a7a10@googlegroups.com> <roy-FEFEEE.13102110082014@news.panix.com> <154cc342-7f85-4d16-b636-a1a953913c98@googlegroups.com> <roy-FD5EE7.14142310082014@news.panix.com> <8c41d779-0c26-430a-a915-08c2b962e0e7@googlegroups.com> <mailman.12827.1407702752.18130.python-list@python.org>
NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost
X-Trace: reader1.panix.com 1407708069 8518 127.0.0.1 (10 Aug 2014 22:01:09 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@panix.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 22:01:09 +0000 (UTC)
User-Agent: MT-NewsWatcher/3.5.3b3 (Intel Mac OS X)
Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:76005

In article <mailman.12827.1407702752.18130.python-list@python.org>,
 Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> On 10/08/2014 19:26, Rustom Mody wrote:
> >
> > Its when we have variables that are assigned in multiple places that
> > we start seeing mathematical abominations like
> > x = x+1
> >
> 
> I'm not bothered about it being a mathematical or any other type of 
> abomination.  It works, practically beats purity, so if it ain't broke, 
> please don't fix it, for some definition of fix.

I'm with Mark.  This isn't math, it's programming.  Sure, the 
intersection of the two is non-null, but they are different things.  
I'll often do things like:

for line in input:
   line = line.strip()
   # do more stuff

Sure, I could invent some other variable name to avoid re-using the same 
name, but does:

for line in input:
   stripped_line = line.strip()
   # do more stuff

really make this any easier to read or understand?  I think not.