May 14, 2003
6:51 a.m.
It's also a bad idea for initializers that aren't immutable, because the initial values are shared between all instances (another example of the "aliasing" problem, also known from default argument values).
Right. I once knew that and had forgotten.
Though I think of __slots__ as a way to make lighter weight instances, constraining instance variables is also one of its functions.
Not true. That is at best an unintended side effect of slots. And there's nothing against having __slots__ include __dict__, so your instance has a __dict__ as well as slots.
That's something I never knew but wish I had known (and I *have* read the source). Live and learn. Raymond