Classes

[Grant Edwards]

On 2014-10-31, Seymore4Head <Seymore4Head at Hotmail.invalid> wrote:
> On Fri, 31 Oct 2014 15:49:43 +0000 (UTC), Grant Edwards
><invalid at invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
>>On 2014-10-31, Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Fri, Oct 31, 2014 at 8:05 AM, Seymore4Head
>>><Seymore4Head at hotmail.invalid> wrote:
>>>> Because the topic of that lesson was getter setter.
>>>> I can construct an __init___  but I was practicing get/set.
>>>
>>> Doesn't sound like a very good lesson to me.
>>
>>It's not.  It's teaching java or C++ or some other language while
>>using a Python compiler.
>>
>>> Getters and setters are the Java way of doing things. The Pythonic
>>> way is to just use an attribute, and then replace it with a property
>>> in the unlikely event that getter/setter logic needs to be added.
>>
>>Exactly.
>
> In this class, we will follow the practice of accessing the contents
> of objects using methods known as getters and setters.

IOW...

"In this class, we're not going to learn Python.  We're going to learn
Java. But actually _using_ Java is too much hassle, so we'll write
Java using Python instead."

> While not required by Python, this practice encourages the user of
> the class to manipulates class objects solely via class methods.

Which is a Java/C++ thing.

> The advantage of following this practice is that the implementer of
> the class definition (often someone other than the user of the class)
> may restructure the organization of the data fields associated with
> the object while avoiding the need to rewrite code that uses the
> class.

That's wrong.  That statement about using getter/setter having that
advantage is false (if you're talking about Python).  It may be true
in Java or C++ or whatever language the lesson's author is teaching,
but it's not true of Python.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! A shapely CATHOLIC
                                  at               SCHOOLGIRL is FIDGETING
                              gmail.com            inside my costume..