[Python-Dev] LOAD_NAME & classes (original) (raw)

Jeremy Hylton jeremy@zope.com
Tue, 23 Apr 2002 12:06:37 -0400

"GvR" == Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> writes:

GvR> Changing LOAD_FAST so that

GvR> x = 1 GvR> def f(): GvR> print x GvR> x = 2 GvR> print x

GvR> prints 1 followed by 2 instead of raising UnboundLocalError GvR> would not break existing code (except code relying on specific GvR> exceptions to be raised -- but such code is always exempt from GvR> non-breakage guarantees).

It wouldn't break existing code, but it would encourage the existence of broken code. It's asking for trouble to write a function that uses a local and a global with the same name. I don't think we should bend the rules to accommodate this kind of confusion.

Jeremy