I am making my first contact with python through the means of the tutorial
(http://www.python.org/doc/current/tut/) and I would like some clarification 
on the example:

--- quote ---
Important warning: The default value is evaluated only once. This makes a 
difference when the default is a mutable object such as a list or dictionary. 
For example, the following function accumulates the arguments passed to it on 
subsequent calls: 

def f(a, l = []):
    l.append(a)
    return l
print f(1)
print f(2)
print f(3)

This will print 

[1]
[1, 2]
[1, 2, 3]
--- end quote ---

One thing I find astonishing about this is the fact that python functions 
seem to have memory; each call of f() leads to a different result ! Does this 
mean that the variable 'l' keeps its content even after the function returns 
? This seems very strange to me as I have never seen it in other languages. 

Some explanation/comments/corrections ?
Thx, Simon

-- 
If you took all the students that felt asleep in class and laid them
end to end, they'd be a lot more comfortable.
		-- "Graffiti in the Big Ten"

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