does python have useless destructors?

[David Turner]

aahz at pythoncraft.com (Aahz) wrote in message news:<catbcs$8d0$1 at panix2.panix.com>...
> In article <e251b7ba.0406150035.16336fb3 at posting.google.com>,
> David Turner <dkturner at telkomsa.net> wrote:
> >aahz at pythoncraft.com (Aahz) wrote in message news:<cal53o$c1b$1 at panix3.panix.com>...
> >> In article <e251b7ba.0406132335.6e65beba at posting.google.com>,
> >> David Turner <dkturner at telkomsa.net> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>In fact, the RAII idiom is quite commonly used with heap-allocated
> >>>objects.  All that is required is a clear trail of ownership, which is
> >>>generally not that difficult to achieve.  
> >> 
> >> Not really.  What you're doing is what I'd call "virtual stack" by
> >> virtue of the fact that the heap objects are being managed by stack
> >> objects.
> >
> >Having read this through a second time, I'm not sure that you
> >understood the C++ code I posted.  So here is an equivalent in Python:
> >
[snip]
> >
> >No stack objects in sight, yet this code is semantically equivalent to
> >the C++ code.
> 
> Not really.  Problem is that there's nothing to prevent people from
> passing File.fh outside the loop -- and that's standard Python coding
> technique!  For that matter, there's nothing preventing a File()
> instance from being passed around.  The fact that you've created an
> idiom that you want to behave like a similar C idiom has nothing to do
> with the way Python actually works.

You can do exactly the same thing in the C++ version, and regularly
do.  What's your point?

Regards
David Turner