4 ms·

"a natural outcropping of python's late binding, "names are references" variable model, and closure mechanisms, which provide a consistency to the language that

• jerf 16y ago
  That would make that the only place in which Python has referential transparency, though. It may be a quirky side-effect of consistency, but it is consistent.
  • eru 16y ago
    Strings are also non-mutable, and thus have referential transparency. And so do numbers in Python.
    • jerf 16y ago
      Referential transparency is a property of functions, not data (unless you're in a lambda mood and treat them as functions of zero arguments, but in that case you're not in Python so it's not relevant here). Even a function to "concatenate two strings" could be passed an object that overloads the addition operator to cause arbitrary modifications: >>> class Evil(object): def __init__(self): self.evil = 1 def __add__(self, other): result = ("%s" % self.evil) + other self.evil += 1 return result >>> def referentially_transparent_concat(a, b): return a + b >>> e = Evil() >>> print referentially_transparent_concat(e, "hi") 1hi >>> print referentially_transparent_concat(e, "hi") 2hi You can program in a referentially-transparent style with Python, but you'll have to do it by adding your own restrictions to the code you write. Python will not help you with that.
      • eru 16y ago
        In your code the devil is in the data-type.