pythonruntime

What does the phrase "created at runtime mean?"

My supervisor asked me the other day if a log file in a Python script is created at runtime or not. Is that another way of asking: is a new log file created every time the script is run? Because to me everything happens "at runtime" and it can be no other way. How else could it be?

Solution

  • The phrase is usually used when you cannot figure out the content of some variable/data by just analyzing the code and other associated files (such as configs). The easiest example I can think of is

    x = 'hi'
print(x)

    versus

    x = input()
print(x)

    In the second example "x is created at runtime". (Or more precisely, the data which the name x points to is dynamic and can be different in each execution.)