[Python-Dev] PEP 292 for Python 2.4

[Nick Coghlan]

François Pinard wrote:
> I know that `string' and `socket' exist, despite `string' is evanescent,
> but they surely forced users at choosing other identifiers where `string'
> and `socket' would have been perfect.  It is very good news that, now
> in Python 2.3, `string' is unneeded most of times.  Let us not repeat
> previous mistakes, or even nail them further by trying to be compatible
> with them.

I would suggest that bare type names are rarely appropriate for use a 
variable names, except in toy examples.

If I'm reading someone else's code, and they create a string or a 
socket, I want to know what it is _for_, rather than the mere fact this 
it is a string or a socket.

If the type is all that is important, then prepending some simple word 
such as 'a_string' or 'the_string' or 'my_string' makes it clear to the 
maintainer that the object doesn't really have any significant semantic 
meaning beyond its type.

Regards,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan               |     Brisbane, Australia
Email: ncoghlan at email.com  | Mobile: +61 409 573 268