I want to see all the variables

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sun, 31 Dec 2006 21:23:03 -0800, Paul Rubin wrote:

> Steven D'Aprano <steve at REMOVE.THIS.cybersource.com.au> writes:
>> > At the same time, you should ponder very
>> > carefully the reasons why the original author deemed it important to
>> > make those attributes private in the first place.
>> 
>> In my experience, it is mostly because they come from
>> bondage-and-domination languages where it is expected that
>> everything is private except for a small, carefully chosen public
>> API, rather than from languages like Python that encourages openness
>> and a philosophy of "we're all adults here".
> 
> Funny thing, some of those B&D languages were designed by people who
> had plenty of experience with Lisp and were tired of being bitten by
> its Python-like looseness.

I never said they were wrong to do so. But those languages aren't
Python. Python is designed for those who are tied of the constant
restraint of B&D languages.


>> I wonder how many double-underscore "private" attributes are used in
>> the Python standard library? That should give you an idea of "best
>> practice" use of private attributes in Python.
> 
> If socket.py is an example of best practice use of private attributes, I
> shudder to imagine what kind of cruft must lurk in legacy applications.

socket.py doesn't have any double-underscore private attributes (at least
not in Python 2.4). So what's your point?



-- 
Steven.