chris wrote: > I'm new to Python ... and I've used decimal._round() as above. What's the > deal with using underscore methods? (A link will do if that'll save you some > typing).
Generally the underscore methods provide *internal* functionality that might be used by other, more externally accessible (i.e. documented!) methods in the object. While as I've said I'm no expert in Decimal and can't say how _round() is intended to be used, it is not documented (as far as I can see) and certainly therefore follows this way of thinking about underscore methods. Several of us have found at least one suitable alternative (i.e. quantize()) that don't rely on underscore methods. (Think of the underscore as being a non-binding convention that says "don't use this externally if possible, as it doesn't form part of the contract guaranteed by this object... it may be removed in the future, may not work exactly as you wish, may have side effects that aren't documented or haven't been analyzed fully when used externally, etc.") -Peter -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
