Double underscore names
Erik Max Francis
max at alcyone.com
Wed Feb 13 01:35:34 EST 2008
Ben Finney wrote:
> The double-underscore convention seems more for attributes *that are
> interpreted specially*, e.g. by syntax operators or other core
> language features.
I would qualify that by adding that it's for attributes that are treated
specially _and when you don't want to overload other names_, especially
when you wouldn't just call the thing normally in the course of dealing
with the object's interface. i.e., a[x] --> a.__getitem__(x), but we
don't want to prevent you from (perhaps blissfully unaware) defining
your own getitem method.
> Go ahead and implement your protocol using attributes with plain
> names. What makes it a protocol is that it's likely to be generally
> applicable, and the names are chosen to apply to other classes equally
> well.
Agreed.
--
Erik Max Francis && max at alcyone.com && http://www.alcyone.com/max/
San Jose, CA, USA && 37 18 N 121 57 W && AIM, Y!M erikmaxfrancis
To be refutable is not the least charm of a theory.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
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