On 3/22/2012 1:54 PM, Tim Chase wrote:
On 03/22/12 12:26, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
On Thu, 22 Mar 2012 08:14:47 -0500, Tycho Andersen wrote:
Given that you can't trust __del__, is there a legitimate
use case for it?
It is part of original or early Python and pretty well superceded by
cyclic gc (which does not work for object with __del__ *because* of the
unreliability), explicit close methods, and now context managers.
I've never found the need to write one.
I've found the need to write them...then been frustrated by things
falling out of namespace reach, and found that context managers do a
much more reliable/understandable job, saving what little sanity I had
left. ;-)
Which is one reason they were added ;-).
So I'd say that __del__ was really only useful (for some sick, sick
definition of "useful") in versions of Python before context-managers
were readily available.
And before cyclic gc, which does a better job of ordering deletions.
--
Terry Jan Reedy
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