[sgc]

Assigning is different than appending, and is the case with a syntax ambiguity. But I'm also not a big fan of the implicit `global` in your example if it's not always implicit.

Fine, we want a test by using `global` to make sure we are doing what we intend when we assign, especially since I see python does not even have true constants so there is a basic lack of safety there. There should also be similar tests before passing every variable with the same name through our function and treating a single name as a list of references without a keyword `all` or similar. Or changing the type of a variable without explicit casting.

To me that lack of continuity just makes a language feel idiomatic and buggy.