Steven D'Aprano wrote:
On Wed, 13 Sep 2017 09:08:41 -0400, Darin Gordon wrote:
Bryan Cantrill gave an interesting talk recently at a Node conference
about "platform values" [1].
For those of us who don't have the time or inclination to watch a video,
or who are unable to, could you summarise these platform values?
The talk lead me to think about what the
core values of the Python "platform" are and I thought it would be good
to ask this question of the community. What would you consider the top
(<= 5) core values?
In no particular order:
- The Zen of Python ("import this" at the interactive interpreter).
- "We're all adults here." We tend to be more relaxed about theoretical
errors, and push some of the responsibility for defensive programming
onto the caller, not just the callee. If the caller breaks my function's
contract by providing bad arguments, or messes with my class' internals,
they deserve whatever bad things happen.
- "We're all adults here." The flip side of that is that if I choose to
mess with your private methods or functions, you shouldn't take
extraordinary steps to try to prevent me. I'm an adult, and if I've got
good reason to call your private method (say, I'm debugging, or I'm
simply exploring the capabilities at the interactive interpreter) then I
should be allowed. If I want to shoot myself in the foot, it isn't your
responsibility to prevent me.
- All else being equal, it is better to ask forgiveness than permission.
In general, we prefer try...except and catching exceptions than to look
before you leap. It is often faster, but more importantly, it avoids
"Time Of Check To Time Of Use" bugs.
- Python is in one sense a pure Object Oriented language (all values,
even integers, are objects)
Even classes are objects.
but in another sense Python is a multiparadigm
language. Not everything needs to be a class. Top-level functions are
often better. We can, and do, write code using four of the big five
programming paradigms: procedural, OOP, functional, imperative. And mix
and match them within a single code base.
(Only deductive/logic programming has little support in Python.)
And if I may be allowed a sixth:
- Not every two line function needs to be a built-in.
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