[Python-Dev] PEP 8 updates/clarifications

Sun Dec 11 18:11:07 CET 2005

 Jim> This seems outdated. My impression, in part from time spent
 Jim> working with the Python Labs guys, is that it is fine to have
 Jim> public data sttributes even for non-"record" types. In fact, I
 Jim> would argue that any time you would be tempted to provide
 Jim> "getFoo()" and "setFoo(v)" for some "private attribute _foo", it
 Jim> would be better to make it public. I certainly find "blah.foo" and
 Jim> "blah.foo = v" to be much better than "blah.getFoo()" and
 Jim> blah.setFoo(v)".
Presuming the foo attribute provides some element of the API that you are
willing to support forever. If it is just an implementation detail you
should use accessor methods or properties.
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