Tuples and Exchanges challenge throws an error (with fix) about python-novice-inflammation HOT 3 CLOSED

Hmm. My interpretation of this challenge was that it was not meant to be executed; it's asking the student to mentally simulate what this code would do, regardless of the actual value that left and right point to. Being able to say what it does for one example is not really what we want, we want the student to think of it at a higher level. That is, a correct answer would be "it swaps what is in left and right", but "right would be 'L' and left would be 'r'" would not be a full answer even though it would be true for a particular example. If a student wishes to put it in the interpreter to see what it does, then I would tell them to make left and right be whatever they want.

That's a pedagogical preference / style though... I can also see the argument for including a particular example, even though we want the student to answer more generally. So, could other instructors that have taught this (or a similar) lesson chime in on whether we should initialize these variables?

from python-novice-inflammation.

I use this as an abstract example. It's straightforward to understand without the variables being initalized I think.

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I had the same thought as @janetriley. I think it is useful to give students a concrete example (that they can execute) and then ask them to abstract from there.

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