Help Create Good Data Model

[mwt]

I get what you're saying fumanchu (or should I say Robert?).
I've been working and reworking this code. It's in a lot better shape
now (although I hestitate to keep flooding the conversation with each
iteration of the file). At the level this app should be operating, I
doubt I'll hit performance issues, and it's good to learn the basics
first. However, I doubt this would scale very well, so the next step
will be to educate myself aobut the performance-enhancing alternatives
you're talking about.

One thing I'm still not sure about -- and I suspect that there is no
right answer -- is the fact that although I am writing the code in
Python, the idiom is purely Java. Having my data bucket in the form of,
essentially, a bean with setters and getters, and each method
surrounded by (the Python version of) a "synchronized" piece, and so on
all comes from my Java background. It's ending up working well as code
(I'm a lot further along today), and it's accomplishing the decoupling
of front and back end I was looking for, so that's excellent. However I
do have the vague feeling that I am doing the equivalent of, say,
writing Greek hexameters in English (i.e. it works but it is
stylistically clunky).

Anyway, thanks for your insight. I will probably be posting more of the
code later, if you are interested in checking it out. The app is a
Folding at Home client monitor (for Gnome) -- one of those applications,
like a web spider, that lots of people want to create, even though
there are already a zillion perfectly working versions out there. It's
just about the right level of complexity for me now.

mwt (Michael Taft)