Python "header" files

[Peter Hansen]

beliavsky at aol.com wrote:
> I wonder how Python projects with multiple programmers can be
> coordinated without giving all programmers access to all of the source
> code. I am currently working on one-man projects, but I am still
> interested in ways of separating interface from implementation.

We had over a dozen Python programmers working on the same
project and didn't find it particularly a problem that the
full source code was available to them.  In fact, given that
it was an XP environment (Extreme Programming, that is, though
it was also a partly WinXP environment) it was a huge
advantage over situations where only sketchy and inaccurate
documentation was available.

In the past, any time I've been limited to header files and
the docs I've encountered serious troubles.  The header
files are often a mess, because of the inherent duplication,
inline code makes them even less readable, and the
documentation is _never_ maintained properly.

-Peter