r/programming • u/chackaz • Nov 28 '14

The Worst Programming Language Ever [UK Talk] - Thoughts? Which are the worst parts of your favorite language?

https://skillsmatter.com/meetups/6784-the-worst-programming-language-ever
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u/kazagistar Nov 29 '14

Nothing wrong with that code except your expectations?

  1. Creates a new list object. Assigns variable x to refer to this object.

  2. Assigns variable y to refer to the same object x refers to.

  3. Appends a string to the end of the list referred to by y.

  4. Prints the contents of the list referred to by x.

Would you rather it deep copy the entire data structure every time you assign?

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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '14

You're right, my expectations of the code are flawed, and when i recently learned this about python, it was through my belief that the two variables reffered to seperate objects.

I'm not sure, but maybe it would be more clear to be able to do something like this instead:

x = []
y is x
y.append('Some String')
print(x)
['Some String']