Why doesn't Python have static variables?

Question

There is a questions asking how to simulate static variables in python.

Also, on the web one can find many different solutions to create static variables. (Though I

Answer 1

An ill-advised alternative:

You can also use the side-effects of the definition time evaluation of function defaults:

def func(initial=0, my_static=[])
  if not my_static:
    my_static.append(initial)

   my_static[0] += 1
  return my_static[0]

print func(0), func(0), func(0)

Its really ugly and easily subverted, but works. Using global would be cleaner than this, imo.