Accessors in Python (getters and setters)

[mystilleef]

Bruno Desthuilliers wrote:
> mystilleef wrote:
> > Bruno Desthuilliers wrote:
> >
> >>mystilleef wrote:
> >>(snip)
> >>
> >>>Python doesn't have any philosophy with regards to naming identifiers.
> >>
> >>Yes it does.
> >
> >
> > No it doesn't.
> >
> >
> >>>>But they are in Python and that is the python's philosophy. All attribute or
> >>>>method not beginning with an '_' *is* API.
> >>>
> >>>Right, and what if I want to change a private API to a public one.
> >>
> >>Then you provide a public API on top of the private one.
> >>
> >>class MyClass(object):
> >>  def __init__(self, ...):
> >>     self._attr = XXX
> >>
> >>  # seems like we really have enough use
> >>  # cases to justify exposing _imp_attr
> >>  @apply
> >>  def attr():
> >>    def fget(self):
> >>      return self._attr
> >>    def fset(self):
> >>      self._attr = attr
> >>    return property(**locals())
> >>
> >>
> >>  def _method(self, ...):
> >>    # code here
> >>
> >>  # seems like we really have enough use
> >>  # cases to justify exposing _imp_method
> >>  method = _impmethod
> >>
> >>Note that none of this actually breaks encapsulation.
> >
> >
> > Ha! Just as bad as getters and setter.
>
> What point are you trying to make here ? Of course a computed attribute
> is just syntactic sugar for getters and setters - what else could it be?
>
> The difference is that you don't need to write explicit getters/setters
> beforehand, nor to use a "behaviour" semantic.
>
> >
> >>>How
> >>>does that solve my naming issues.
> >>
> >>How could this solve *your* naming issue ? This is totally unrelated.
> >>You choose a bad name for a *public* symbol.
> >
> >
> > My point exactly! It doesn't solve my problem!
>
> What do you hope ? Something that cures cancer ? Please enlighten us and
> explain how explicit getters/setters would have solved the problem of
> badly named getters/setters ?
>
I did already. If I had used Java, Eiffel, Smalltalk or C++, I would
have easily changed tmp to temporary_buffer without having search and
replace or grep 27000 lines of code. The point of accessors in those
languages is encapsulation. Which means I can change any detail of
implementation, yes including names of attributes, without breaking
code.