> plenty of people write Python scripts with no main() function and no
> need to test for `if __name__ == __main__`.
>
> And there is nothing wrong with that.
Indeed, I think there is something “right” with that.
The if __name__ block is only required for a Python file to be both a
module and a script.
That’s actually a pretty uncommon thing— if it’s a module to be imported by
other modules, then it probably should be part of a package, and if the
functionality needs to be made available as a script, there can be another
module just for that.
If a script is complicated enough that it should be built as multiple
functions, it can call the main function after define ing what’s needed,
but no need for the __main__ guard.
Someone in this thread (the OP?) wrote that most of the modules they right
are both importable and scripts — I’d like to hear more about those use
cases, because that diste seems like a bad practice to me.
-CHB
> In C terms, this code is not even possible:
>
> print("Hello")
>
> def main():
> print("Goodbye")
>
> __main__(main)
> print("Why are you still here? Go home!")
>
>
> since you cannot have code outside of a function that is called before
> the entry point main() (declarations and macros excempted) or after it
> returns.
>
> I don't think it is a good idea to give programmers coming from other
> languages the false impression that Python behaves the same as the
> language they are familiar with, when it doesn't. The entrypoint to
> Python scripts is not main(), it is the top of the module.
>
>
> --
> Steve
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--
Christopher Barker, PhD (Chris)
Python Language Consulting
- Teaching
- Scientific Software Development
- Desktop GUI and Web Development
- wxPython, numpy, scipy, Cython
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