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The "does Python have variables?" debate

Rustom Mody rustompmody at gmail.com
Thu May 8 02:50:51 EDT 2014 
On Thursday, May 8, 2014 12:10:45 PM UTC+5:30, Ben Finney wrote:
> Marko Rauhamaa writes:

> > What you are describing is that Python has pointer semantics.

> That doesn't describe it, no. To my eye, "pointer semantics" entails
> that one can directly pass a pointer around as a value (which can't be
> done for Python references), and that one can de-reference a pointer to
> get the value pointed at (which can't be done for Python references).

> > Your example, properly understood and translated, will yield
> > Python-esque results in any programming language:
> >    #!/bin/bash
> >    a = /tmp/xyz
> >    touch $a

> Of course, if you feel free to turn "assignment" into something that
> isn't assignment at all, you can get different results. But to do so,
> you've had to ignore the language's native assignment operator, which
> *doesn't* work that way.

> I get the impression you're no longer engaging in this discussion trying
> to learn, but rather to score points. I refuse to play.

I get the impression that you dont get the difference (I think Marko is making)
between 
- language has pointers
- language has pointer semantics
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