ethical questions about global variables

[Michele Simionato]

On Dec 16, 3:45 am, "Giampaolo Rodola'" <gne... at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> in a module of mine (ftpserver.py) I'd want to add a (boolean) global
> variable named "use_gmt_times" to decide whether the server has to
> return times in GMT or localtime but I'm not sure if it is a good idea
> because of the "ethical" doubts I'm gonna write below.

Global variables have a bad reputation, but they are not
so bad in Python. Notice that:

1. global variables in Python are local to the module they
   are defined in;

2. class names and module names are usually global variables
   and nobody complains about that.

3. if you use an ALL_CAPS convention it is quite quite clear
   that you are using a global variable.

Actually the ALL_CAPS convention is for constants, but
sometimes I use it for configuration variables too, if
they are set at the beginning and they are never changed
during the running of the program. If you have more than
a single global, it makes sense to introduce a configuration
object, as others have said (this is how typically work)
but if you have a single parameter the confuguration
object is not worth the effort, IMO.

                 M. Simionato