is python Object oriented??

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sun, 01 Feb 2009 12:31:27 -0500, Steve Holden wrote:

> I think it's noticeable that the people who have been arguing against
> what I might tipify as this "libertarian view" are those for whom the
> consequences of programming error are serious to extreme.
...
> Just the same, it still doesn't save them from the consequences of
> interface miscommunication, as int he case of the Mars lander that
> crashed because one module provided a (probably strongly-typed) value in
> meters, and the recipient interpreted it as (probably strongly-typed)
> feet, cutting the engine out too early.

Of course. Nor will data hiding prevent off-by-one errors, or errors of 
logic, or data corruption, or stray cosmic rays flipping bits in memory. 
But it will prevent *some* errors. It's one tool in an entire toolbox for 
writing correct code, not a magic bullet.

Python already has enforced data hiding, but only for built-ins. 
Consequently, anyone who uses a list can absolutely, categorically trust 
that len(alist) will return the actual length of alist, and not some 
mangled value stuffed into alist by some arbitrary piece of code 
somewhere else.

(For those unaware, in CPython lists are arrays. They store the current 
length as a private value inaccessible to Python code.)

Short of cosmic rays flipping bits, any built-in list you receive from 
anywhere is going to have a valid length, and no pure-Python code can 
make it invalid. To read some of the posts in this thread, one would be 
forgiven for thinking that this most be a disaster of the highest 
consequences, unPythonic to the extreme, an example of unfree B&D 
programming so unpleasant to work with that people hate every second of 
it.

Except of course it isn't. Nobody sensibly complains that they can't 
mangle the length of a list, or move keys around inside dicts, or 
whatever. This data hiding is a good thing.

All I want is the ability to do with Python classes what I can do with C 
extension types. I don't think that's an *unreasonable* ask, even if it 
is *unpractical* given the current design of Python.



-- 
Steven