This bug is explained in the attached file.  The list of lists does not
behave correctly when it is defined by the makeGrid function in the
attached file.  When attempting to set the value of one element, it
actually sets multiple elements.  The same operation works differently
when the list of lists is defined with a literal.  I am using version
2.5.2 with Windows XP.  I am just learning Python, so I may have gotten
some terminology wrong.
stesteve

This is not a bug. Please read about references in Python, and what this
means:



py> b=[0]
py> a=[b,b]
py> a[0] is a[1]
True
py> c=[[0],[0]]
py> c[0] is c[1]
False
py> c[0] == c[1]
True

In short, there is only a single list stored in the variable gridRow,
and the very same list is appended multiple times (not copies of the
list, but the very same object). There are then multiple ways to refer
to the list, such as g[0] or g[1].

To avoid sharing the list objects, either create new lists (i.e. nest
the first loop into the second one, and create a new gridRow on each
outer loop iteration), or create clones of the first list, e.g.

  grid.append(list(gridRow))
# or
  grid.append(gridRow[:])