Blender scripting

[the_jl_zone]

I'm trying to see if I can append vertices in Blender using a pre-written function. Here's my current script:

import bpy

scale=0.8
height=1.5
step_in=.1
center_scale=scale*step_in
center_height=height*step_in
verts=[
]
side=-height
def add_verts(scale,height,step_in,center_scale,center_height):
    for i in range(2):
        s_side=-1
        h_side=-1
        x=0
        y=0
        z=height*h_side
        vert=(x,y,z)
        for i in range(2):
            x==scale*s_side
            y==scale*s_side
            verts.append(vert)
            x==scale*s_side
            y==scale*-s_side
            verts.append(vert)
            s_side==-s_side
        h_side==-h_side
add_verts(scale,height,step_in,center_scale,center_height)

How am I doing so far?