[Python-Dev] Re: Zen of Python

Thu Jan 20 02:47:02 CET 2005

 Phillip> Actually, this is one of those rare cases where optimization
 Phillip> and clarity go hand in hand. Human brains just don't handle
 Phillip> nesting that well. It's easy to visualize two levels of nested
 Phillip> structure, but three is a stretch unless you can abstract at
 Phillip> least one of the layers.
Also, if you think about nesting in a class/instance context, something like
 self.attr.foo.xyz()
says you are noodling around in the implementation details of self.attr (you
know it has a data attribute called "foo"). This provides for some very
tight coupling between the implementation of whatever self.attr is and your
code. If there is a reason for you to get at whatever xyz() returns, it's
probably best to publish a method as part of the api for self.attr.
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