Python garbage collector/memory manager behaving strangely

Thu Nov 15 02:31:15 EST 2012

aahz at pythoncraft.com (Aahz) writes:
> ...
>>>> def readlines(f):
>>>> lines = []
>>>> while "f is not empty":
>>>> line = f.readline()
>>>> if not line: break
>>>> if len(line) > 2 and line[-2:] == '|\n':
>>>> lines.append(line)
>>>> yield ''.join(lines)
>>>> lines = []
>>>> else:
>>>> lines.append(line)
>>>>>> There's a few changes I'd make:
>>> I'd change the name to something else, so as not to shadow the built-in,
> ...
> Actually, as an experienced programmer, I *do* think it is confusing as
> evidenced by the mistake Dave made! Segregated namespaces are wonderful
> (per Zen), but let's not pollute multiple namespaces with same name,
> either.
>> It may not be literally shadowing the built-in, but it definitely
> mentally shadows the built-in.

I disagree with you. namespaces are there that in working
with a namespace I do not need to worry much about other
namespaces. Therefore, calling a function "readlines"
is very much justified (if it reads lines from a file), even
though there was a module around with name "readlines".
By the way, the module is named "readline" (not "readlines").