Oh ok, I see. Yes I've also programmed classes that dynamically declare themselves (mine was for XML parsing).
Presumably static analyzers like Doxygen etc. can't handle those so they lie outside the scope of what we were discussing. I was asking if it's a recognized good programming practice to declare and initialize *all* members in the class defn. I think I'm hearing a general yes on that - any other opinions? Stephen >From: Eric Brunson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: Alan Gauld <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >CC: tutor@python.org >Subject: Re: [Tutor] Efficiency of Doxygen on Python vs C++? >Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 18:37:54 -0600 > > >We're definitely on the same wavelength, Alan. :-) > >Alan Gauld wrote: > > "Stephen McInerney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote > > > > > >> Eric, you misunderstood my point. > >> I said you make a **token** assignment in the class defn simply > >> to do two things: > >> - 1) identify all the members in one place > >> - 2) annotate each member's type, as much as you can > >> > > > > I'm sure Eric can explain for himself but what I think he was saying > > was that his classes define themselves at runtime. They read the > > names of the fields and type information from the database metadata > > and create the attributes accordingly. Thus he doesn't know what > > his class attributes will be until the program runs. He may not even > > know the names of his classes until he reads the database > > tablenames. > > > > This is exactly the kind of tricky coding that is possible in a > > dynamic > > language which is next tio impossible in static compiled code, unless > > you write your own 'little language interpreter' inside the compiled > > program. This kind of abstract meta programming is extremely tricky > > to get right but at least it's possible in something like Python. > > But it makes analyzing the code very complex since much of the > > working code is being created by the config code at runtime. > > > > I've never actually tried this in Python but have done similar things > > in Lisp. In C++ you usually have to create classes in advance for > > every possible eventuality then use a factory class (or big switch > > statement) to create the desitred instances. That's a lot of excess > > code which is still less reliable and robust. > > > > Of course I could be misreading Eric's intent... > > > > Alan G. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org > > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor > > > >_______________________________________________ >Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org >http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor _________________________________________________________________ Puzzles, trivia teasers, word scrambles and more. Play for your chance to win! http://club.live.com/home.aspx?icid=CLUB_hotmailtextlink _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
