[M.-A. Lemburg, on the resurrection/multiple-__del__ "idiom"]
... The idea came from a different area: the C implementation of Python uses free lists a lot and these are basically implementations of the same idiom: save an allocated resource for reviving it at some later point.
Excellent analogy! Thanks. Now that you phrased it in this clarifying way, I recall that very much the same point was raised in the papers that resulted in the creation of guardians in Scheme. I don't know that anyone is actually using Python __del__ this way today (I am not), but you reminded me why I thought it was natural at one time <wink>. generally-__del__-aversive-now-except-in-c++-where-destructors-are- guaranteed-to-be-called-when-you-except-them-to-be-ly y'rs - tim