assignment to __class__ (was Re: Copy constructors)
Andrew Kuchling
akuchlin at mems-exchange.org
Mon Aug 13 17:14:39 EDT 2001
"Alex Martelli" <aleaxit at yahoo.com> quoted:
> Can we expect variable declarations a few minor releases from
> now, then? That would presumably be consistent with the new
> focus on protecting typical users from themselves.
It also seems unlikely that newbies run into this problem much,
because assigning __class__ is unlikely to be done by accident, and
because people coming from C++ don't expect that to even be possible.
I can't recall very many people asking about class reassignment tricks
on c.l.py.
> "Guido van Rossum" <guido at python.org> wrote in message
> news:cpzo94dqvy.fsf at cj20424-a.reston1.va.home.com...
> > And all I'm trying to do is to make those things safer. A chainsaw is
> > a great tool -- and also very dangerous. Should we forbid the use of
> > chainsaws? Of course not. Should we try to make them safer by adding
> > protective devices? Of course we should!
A few weeks ago there was an article in the _Washington Post_ about
someone who's invented a safety device for table saws. It somehow
detects if the user is touching the blade (the article implies it was
through the conductivity of human flesh -- perhaps a current flows
when a finger completes the circuit) and stops the blade within a few
milliseconds, faster than the pain would travel from your finger to
your brain. A standard demonstration is to stick a hot dog into the
table saw's blade; the blade stops so quickly that the hot dog is only
nicked.
The problem is that he can't find manufacturers who want to include
it. The device costs $150, which is unacceptably high for a low-end
table saw that costs $300 now. Manufacturers could add it to their
high-end $3000 models, but then they might be sued by someone injured
on a low-end saw because a safety device existed but wasn't available
to them. So they're simply not adding the device at all.
Moral: Additional safety has costs, and sometimes that cost is too
high to pay. :)
--amk
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