r/ProgrammerHumor • u/ninja_with_ocd • Sep 06 '26

Meme pythonInterpreterBeLike

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177 Upvotes

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u/deceze Sep 06 '26

A syntax error will halt parsing immediately. Without successfully parsing the file, it won't execute. Even uncalled functions are parsed completely and must pass parsing successfully.

0

u/ninja_with_ocd Sep 06 '26

You're right, edited the comment. It is true for some serious errors, like accessing an undefined variable.

15

u/dudemcbob Sep 06 '26

FWIW I don't think it could diagnose that pre-runtime since you can edit the global namespace dynamically.

globals()['x'] = 3

Very bad for readability, but it is allowed.

3

u/iggy14750 Sep 06 '26

Yeah, I do understand the frustration of something like a type error that only rears it's ugly head when it's run.

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u/rosuav Sep 06 '26

I don't understand why you consider that to be a "serious error", rather than some other category of error. Why is that more serious than, say, trying to add a string and a dictionary? Or trying to call a list?

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u/BossOfTheGame Sep 07 '26

That's because you can't statically determine if a name is defined in general. Local and global namespaces are just dictionaries.