Why does it matter? I suppose you could avoid the possibility of a name clash if the interpreter maintained a hidden, name-mangled reference for you...? Perso

Why does it matter? I suppose you could avoid the possibility of a name clash if the interpreter maintained a hidden, name-mangled reference for you...? Personally I think it's a bigger problem that python isn't all that well suited to functional programming because of lack of tco etc (see slackness python etc). But I understand the design decision.