does python have useless destructors?

[Manlio Perillo]

On Wed, 9 Jun 2004 20:40:11 +0000 (UTC), "Michael P. Soulier"
<msoulier at digitaltorque.ca._nospam> wrote:

> [...]

Hi.
Since __del__ isn't really 'useful', *maybe* a better solution is to
add another special method for classes, ad example a __finalize__
method.
Such method, if present, *will* be called during stack unwinding.
So, in __finalize__ one can release 'external' resources.

class file:
	__init__(self, ...): ...

	__finalize__(self): self.close()

	...


Another useful addition could be to add a 'block' statement:

a_file = '...'

block:
	f = open(a_file)
	f.write(...)


As an example, block can be supposed to be equivalent to:

block:
	statement

=>

def __block()
	statement
__block()



Regards   Manlio Perillo