*Really? Python's handling of reaching into the outer scope of a function is jus... | Hacker News

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jrockway on Sept 18, 2012 | parent | context | favorite | on: Actually, you don't understand lexical scope

Really? Python's handling of reaching into the outer scope of a function is just as confusing (although I hear it is fixed in 3000?)

Do you mean:

   try:
     foo = '42'
   except Whatever:
     raise
   print "foo is %s" % foo

If so, I really like that feature. It's much clearer to me than what I'd write in another language:

   foo = None
   try:
     foo = 42
   ...

ostso on Sept 18, 2012 [–]

Perhaps mistercow means things like

  def foo():
    x = 5
    def bar():
      print x
    def baz():
      x = 6
      print x
    bar()
    baz()
    print x

Which prints 5, 6, 5. If baz tried to print x before assigning, it would be an UnboundLocalError.

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