[Microbit-Python] Accessor API design on the micro:bit

[Michael]

On 2 November 2015 at 21:06, Larry Hastings <larry at hastings.org> wrote:
...

> I don't know what the curriculum will look like, but I would be very
> surprised indeed if it permanently skipped variables and only ever taught
> the students functions.  Since presumably the students *will* be taught
> about variables, I don't see a need to remove any and all variables (or
> things that merely look like variables!) from our API.
>

Strawman argument. They're taught variables not properties. To them a
variable a value that when you set it, it stays that value until you change
it again.

To you it's "merely look like a variable", but that merely is actually an
extra-ordinary leap.

Python properties are an advanced concept in any python tutorial because
they require understanding of descriptors, and python objects,
getters/setters (since they're there under the hood) and so on.

Also, while I think they're *nice* they are actually far far less used than
people realise.

$ pwd
/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages

$ grep @property `find -type f|grep py$`|cut -d: -f1 |uniq |sort|cut -d/
-f2|sort|uniq |wc -l
62

$ ls -p|grep /|wc -l
239

$ find -type f|grep py$|wc -l
   7713

$ wc -l `find -type f|grep py$`|tail -1
 2164030 total

$ grep @property `find -type f|grep py$`|wc -l
   1151

ie the best figure I can find is 1/4 of projects used use python
properties, 3% of files use them, and you'll only see a @property usage in
one out of every 2000 lines of code.

To me that suggests it's niche *except* for people who have been using
python for years - that's much much much more niche than I expected.


Michael.
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