Paul Rubin wrote: > Steven D'Aprano <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >>Follow the logical implications of this proposed behaviour. >> >>class Game: >> current_level = 1 >> # by default, games start at level one > > > That's bogus. Initialize the current level in the __init__ method > where it belongs.
But there is a relevant use case for this: If you have a class hierarchy, where the difference between the classes is mainly/completely a matter of data, i.e. default values. Then it's very convenient to use such defaults in the class scope. Of course, you *could* have an __init__ in the base class that copies this data from class scope to instance scope on instance creation, but why make it more complicated? You could also imagine cases where you have many instances and a big immutable variable which typically stays as default, but must sometimes vary between instances. As I explained in another post, member lookups in the instance must look in the class to find methods, so why not get used to the fact that it works like this, and use it when it's convenient. It's not as if anyone puts a gun to your head and force you to use this feature. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
