> First, though, can you enumerate (pun intended) the problems with > magic strings? You list "no magic strings" as a benefit, as if it's > self-evident; I'm not sure that it is. > > ChrisA
One of my main reasons would be the type-checking from tools like Pycharm, which is the one I use. If I don't remember the exact strings, I won't have to switch to my browser to look up the documentation, but instead I type the enum name, and the typechecker will give me the members with correct spelling - all I need to remember is a vague idea of what option did what. The option names will be reminders instead of the thing to remember. Perhaps the string encode/decode would be a better case, tho. Is it latin 1 or latin-1 ? utf-8 or UTF-8 ? They might be fast to look up if you know where to look (probably the top result of googling "python string encoding utf 8", and it's the second and first option respectively IIRC. But I shouldn't -have- to recall correctly), but it's still a lot faster if you can type "Encoding.U" and it gives you the option. I'll go and see if I can make a small list of modules using these kind of strings that aren't of the essential core when I get home this evening. My apologies if magic strings isn't the correct word. Despite that, I believe everyone knows what I intend to say. _______________________________________________ Python-ideas mailing list Python-ideas@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
