Rock <rocco.ro...@gmail.com> writes: >> Object-oriented designs are difficult to design in any programming >> language, and it helps to have some sort of concrete problem to drive >> the discussion. Are you working on a particular design where you >> think Python's philosophy will inhibit good design? My take on Python >> is that it focuses more on enabling good designs than preventing bad >> designs. I prefer this to Java, for example, which I feel inhibits me >> from expressiveness at a higher cost than any supposed benefits >> private/protected would give me. > > Thanks for the reply. No, I was just working with a normal library > class which was supposed to be derived. So that's what I did, but in > the process I found myself needing to create an instance variable and > it dawned on me: "how do I know I'm not clobbering something > here???" ... I'd have to look at the docs, right? But I still wasn't > sure ... so, then I thought "let's look at the source", and then I > found out. But! It took me some time to make sure, and I was puzzled > as well. I mean, what if I have no source to look at? What if the > library I'm using doesn't realase the source, or what if I just can't > get my hands on it for some reason or another? > > That was a big disappointment with Python for sure. Somehow PHP makes > me feel a little safer, in that respect at least.
I've been reading c.l.python for years (on and off) and I can't recall anybody saying this has been a problem in practise. There are many queries about how to create private/protected attributes, but not as a result of having had a problem, rather because people new to Python but experienced in another language (C++, Java...) are used to those concepts being central, whereas in Python they are deliberately being pushed aside. A much more common problem with naming is something like this: I create a module (or simply a script) and calls it "foo.py". In another file in the same directory I create a script that imports module "bar". However, module "bar" itself imports a module called "foo" of which I am unaware. But because "foo.py" is in the Python path, this gets loaded instead, causing havoc. -- Arnaud -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
