SV: Regarding coding style

[Grant Edwards]

On 2008-03-09, Steven D'Aprano <steve at REMOVE-THIS-cybersource.com.au> wrote:
> On Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:21:48 +0100, K Viltersten wrote:
>
>> Coming from C++/Java camp i can't help noticing that in most cases, when
>> i'm using a class written by somebody else, i don't want to see his/her
>> code. I only want to know WHAT the function does (is intended to be
>> doing, at least).
>> 
>> I don't want to look at the source code (in some cases i can't even see
>> the code because it's compiled). I only care that when i execute
>> 
>>   SomeType obj = SomeType();
>>   obj.aggregate();
>> 
>> the object gets aggregated. How it's done will be up to the author. I'm
>> just a user of the product.
>> 
>> Now, i'm getting the signal that it's done in a different way in Python.
>> Please elaborate. I'm very new to snakeology.
>
>
> I think even Grant would agree that when you call "help(make_widget)", 
> you should see something like:
>
>     make_widget(styleID, material) -> widget or 
>         raise ValueError on failure
>
>         styleID: numeric ID or string name of the widget style
>         material: WidgetMaterial instance or None to use default

I think docstrings are a great idea.  What's needed is a way to
document the signature that can't get out-of-sync with what the
fucntion really expects.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  I'm wearing PAMPERS!!
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