Reply-To set to python-id...@python.org. Terry Reedy writes:
> For data attributes, which are usually mutable, it should be attached to > the attribute *concept*, which is represented by the name, rather than > the current but usually changeable value. Values are usually already > documented either by a value representation or a docstring. This could > be done with a string subclass that is used as needed. > > For methods, the value is nearly always constant. When multiple methods > share the same function, they usually also share the same name, and > represent the same concept. Aside: Properties are which? Data, or method? It's also not clear to me that "def first (self): return self.values[0]" is unlikely to be used for completely different purposes than getting the head of a list. I conclude the considerations above are mostly red herrings. The important thing, I suppose, is that the names of attributes defined in a class are not mutable. This means that their docstrings can be kept in a completely separate dict (or other string -> string mapping), which could even be stored in a separate file. (Emacs Lisp uses this to good effect. The DOC file for XEmacs is 1.6MB; for GNU Emacs it's 2.4MB.) Of course it has its problems, but they're pretty minor. _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
