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[waylan]

Steve Holden wrote:
> waylan wrote:
[snip]
> >
> >>from mod_python import apache
> >>from time import strftime, gmtime
> >>
> >
> > def curtime():
> >     return strftime("%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S +0000", gmtime())
> >
> >
> >>def handler(req):
> >>     req.content_type = "text/plain"
> >>     req.send_http_header()
> >>     req.write(str(curtime()))
> >>     return apache.OK
> >
> >
> This is a very long way round for a shortcut (though it does have the
> merit of working). Why not just
>
> def handler(req):
>       req.content_type = "text/plain"
>       req.send_http_header()
>       curtime = strftime("%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S +0000", gmtime())
>       req.write(str(curtime))
>       return apache.OK
>
> Or even
>
> def handler(req):
>       req.content_type = "text/plain"
>       req.send_http_header()
>       req.write(strftime("%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S +0000", gmtime()))
>       return apache.OK
>

While Steve's examples certainly do the trick in this limited case, I
assumed that the original poster was just starting with mod_python and
I was simply trying to explain the bigger picture for future reference.
As one develops more sophisticated code, simply adding it to the
`handler` function becomes less desirable. Reacognizing that anything
that must be reevaluated on each request must be callable will be a
bigger help IMHO.

Steve's examples work because the current time is evaluated within
`handler` and :

>>> callable(handler)
True

While in the the original example:

>>> callable(curtime)
False

Yet in my example:

>>> callable(curtime)
True

Finally, by way of explaination:

>>> callable.__doc__
'callable(object) -> bool\n\nReturn whether the object is callable
(i.e., some kind of function).\nNote that classes are callable, as are
instances with a __call__() method.'