Friday Finking: Source code organisation

[DL Neil]

>>> "Define before use" is a broad principle that I try to follow, even
>>> when the code itself doesn't mandate this.
> 
> IMO it makes the code easier to navigate even when it's not strictly
> necessary. As others have said, Python mandates that the functions be
> defined before they're CALLED, but I find that it's worth being
> stricter. As a general rule, any global name in my code (that includes
> constants, module-level functions, etc, etc) will have its definition
> as the textually-first instance of that name. Or, at worst, the first
> instance will be a comment immediately above the definition.

('Anonymised' because this is not 'aimed' at any particular individual)


I was somewhat amused at being 'corrected' in the "defined" cf "called" 
discussion. The 'corrections' are more precise. However such 
distinctions are machine-related, ie how does the Python interpreter behave?


The central topic of this (ideally, thought-provoking) discussion, is on 
the person (not the machine). Yes, the author. Although, if you 
subscribe to the philosophy that program(me)s should be written with 
human-readers in-mind, then the likes of "beauty is in the eye of the 
beholder" and "readability counts", apply!

Various 'gurus', probably even before the Agile/Gang-of-Four/OOP, have 
talked of code craftsmanship having a number of characteristics. One of 
which is that *my* code should appear pretty-much as *you* expect the 
solution. When we were asked to discuss this, over-the-teacups (on 
Friday, hence the "FF" moniker) the young fellow's question was phrased 
"what do you guys expect [from me]".
(yes, he was quoting/abstracting from 'Uncle Bob' and "Clean Code" 
[Prentice-Hall, 2009]).

We have a number of 'what do you expect'-s in Python. For example, there 
is no "law" saying that we must use "self" within classes. Other 
languages use similar but alternate terminology, eg "this". I could 
decide to use "dn_was_here" and the interpreter will be perfectly happy 
- but because you don't expect it and would be made to (unnecessarily) 
comprehend, I doubt it would promote our friendship/mutual-respect!

So, do you hold any 'expectation' relating to the organisation of class 
methods?
-- 
Regards =dn