[Python-Dev] Breaking undocumented API

[Giampaolo Rodolà]

+1 on everything.

2010/11/11 Alexander Belopolsky <alexander.belopolsky at gmail.com>:
> 2010/11/11 Michael Foord <fuzzyman at voidspace.org.uk>:
> ..
>>> You mean runtime automation, e.g. creating __all__ on the fly omitting
>>> underscored names?
>>>
>> Writing code to generate a __all__ that duplicates the default behaviour
>> seems redundant to me.
>>
>
> FWIW, I like having __all__ at the top of the module.  It feels like a
> table of contents at the start of a chapter.  In some cases it may
> also serve as an optimization when len(__all__) is much smaller than
> len(__dict__).  I also don't like _ prefix to become an exclusive
> means to express privateness.
>
> I think the current definition of "public names" is a good one and
> just needs to be made more visible in the docs.  If the module defines
> __all__, that should be the ultimate answer to what is public in that
> module.   (Users should learn to use help(module) instead of
> dir(module) for API discovery.)   If __all__ is not defined in the
> module, I think it is good to introduce it after a careful review of
> what it should contain.  And __all__ should never contain names that
> start with _.
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