On 6/29/07, Douglas Alan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > "Chris Mellon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > You're arguing against explicit resource management with the argument > > that you don't need to manage resources. Can you not see how > > ridiculously circular this is? > > No. It is insane to leave files unclosed in Java (unless you know for > sure that your program is not going to be opening many files) because > you don't even know that the garbage collector will ever even run, and > you could easily run out of file descriptors, and hog system > resources. > > On the other hand, in Python, you can be 100% sure that your files > will be closed in a timely manner without explicitly closing them, as > long as you are safe in making certain assumptions about how your code > will be used. Such assumptions are called "preconditions", which are > an understood notion in software engineering and by me when I write > software. >
Next time theres one of those "software development isn't really engineering" debates going on I'm sure that we'll be able to settle the argument by pointing out that relying on *explicitly* unreliable implementation details is defined as "engineering" by some people. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
