On 2008-05-24, Ben Finney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Sh4wn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >> first, python is one of my fav languages, and i'll definitely keep >> developing with it. But, there's 1 one thing what I -really- miss: >> data hiding. I know member vars are private when you prefix them with >> 2 underscores, but I hate prefixing my vars, I'd rather add a keyword >> before it. > > From whom are you trying to hide your attributes? > > In Python, the philosophy "we're all consenting adults here" applies. > You shouldn't pretend to know, at the time you write it, all the uses > to which your code will be put. Barriers such as enforced "private" > attributes will only cause resentment when people, despite your > anticipations, *need* to access them and are then forced to hack their > way around them.
I don't find this argument very compelling. You can't anticipate all functionality people would like your function to have. Acces to information in a (private) attribute is just one of those possible functionallities. People will resent you if you don't provide functionality they think fits logically in your package. > If you want the users of your code to know that an attribute should > not be used as a public API for the code, use the convention of naming > the attribute with a single leading underscore. This is a string > signal that the attribute is part of the implementation, not the > interface. The reader is then on notice that they should not rely on > that attribute; but they are not *prohibited* from using it if > necessary to their ends. But they will resent you just as much if you decide to rewrite your module in such a way that the attribute is no longer present or is used now in a slightly different way, so that it break code. -- Antoon Pardon -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
