[Tutor] Critique of program

[Anna Ravenscroft]

Bill Burns wrote:


Just a few observations:

>     def clearLineEdits(self):
>         """Clears the data in every lineEdit
>         """
>         for name in self.__dict__:
>             w = getattr(self, name)
>             if hasattr(w, "displayText"): # if isinstance(w, QLineEdit):
>                 w.clear()
>         self.lineEditTotal.setText("")

You said:
 > I'm not really trying to check whether the object has a certain
 > attribute that I desire, I just want to know if it's the object that
 > I'm looking for. IOW, are you a lineEdit or are you a button, if
 > you're a button then go away I only like lineEdits  ;-)

Is it *likely* to be a lineEdit? Can you *DO* w.clear() on a button? If 
it's likely to be a lineEdit, and it's only possible to do w.clear() on 
a lineEdit, then you might want to use the "Better to ask forgiveness 
than permission" idiom of a try/except loop. Same with your other uses 
of hasattr.

Something like (pseudocode):

for name in self.__dict__:
	w = getattr(self, name)
	try w.clear()
	except TypeError:	
		pass

Or something like that... (It's morning and I haven't finished my second 
cup of tea yet...)

> def volCalc(ID, length):
>     """ Calculates the water volume inside of the pipe
>     """
>     gal = ((ID*.5)**2)*3.14159265*(12*length)/(230.9429931) 
>     gal = "%0.2f" % gal
>     return gal

You're going to be adding these things. It's already a float - so, leave 
it as such. Your presentation/reporting functions can deal with 
formatting stuff like the "0.2f"%gal.

> def add(args):
>     """Sums all of the values on the stack
>     """
>     sum = 0
>     for i in args:
>         i = float(i)
>         sum = sum + i
>     sum = str(sum)
>     return sum

There is a built-in sum as of Python 2.3 which is very fast. You may 
want to try using that instead. Also, same comment here as in volCalc: 
return a float. Your presentation/reporting functions can stringify it 
as necessary.

HTH

Anna