From: alrice at swcp.com (Alex Rice)
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 1999 21:24:42 -0700
Subject: disenchanted java user mumbles newbie questions
Message-ID: <3705980A.1C7E9512@swcp.com>
Content-Length: 1637
X-UID: 376                                                  

Hola,

1) In the Python 1.5 Tutorial, sec. 9.2 "Python Scopes and Name Spaces"
there is the following passage:

>> 
It is important to realize that scopes are determined textually: the
global scope of a function defined in a module is that module's name
space, no matter from where or by what alias the function is called. On
the other hand, the actual search for names is done dynamically, at run
time -- however, the language definition is evolving towards static name
resolution, at ``compile'' time, so don't rely on dynamic name
resolution! (In fact, local variables are already determined
statically.) 
>>

Where can I read more about this move towards for compile time, static
name resolution and the reasons for it. For some reason I was
envisioning Python as being less like Java and more like Objective-C or
Smalltalk in terms of dynamic binding.

2) Which reminds me: does anyone have a URL for that Ousterhut (sp?)
article at Sunlabs about Scripting languages and why scripting rulz and
where he has a taxonomy of programming languages along 2 dimensions?
Lost that bookmark and cannot find it again.

3) What's the Python equivalent of depends.exe? --something to find what
modules your script is depending upon? It seems like one would be able
to create a very slim distribution if one needed an .exe, couple of .dll
only a handful of .py files. A Java+Swing application can be 1-2 MB not
including the VM! bloat--ed. What's a typical size of a bare-bones
Python distribution? Obviously the thread in this group "Free commercial
Python application" is not representative... I hope.

TIA!

Alex Rice -- MindLube Software




