[SciPy-dev] Best ways to set default values consistent within a module

[David Cournapeau]

Hi,

    I have a question concerning default values for scipy functions. 
Basically, I have a class which have a significant number of function, 
several private, several private, and they provide different levels of 
the same functionality, with similar arguments with default values.

class foo:
    def foo1(level = def1, dim = def2):
       pass
    def foo2(level = def1, dim = def2):
       pass
   
What is the best way to maintain the default values consistent ? What I 
do for now is to set the default values from global variables; another 
way is to use the syntax *args, **kw, but I don't really like it myself, 
because then you do not know what the values when doing help foo.foo1 (I 
found this really annoying in matplotlib docstrings, for example).

cheers,

David