[Baypiggies] Type checking - argument for it being bad practice?

[Aahz]

On Sat, Oct 09, 2010, Zachary Collins wrote:
>
> Another reason I like python's hands off approach to private members
> and typing is that... I don't trust other programmers to know what I
> need to do.  Frankly, my belief is that the coder who is most
> immediately writing software has priority over the guy who wrote the
> lib 10 years ago.  If I need your private variable to hack around a
> feature problem or bug, I don't want to have to ask "pretty please".
> If I need to give you a type you didn't think about when you wrote
> your library, I don't want to have to assure you that it's ok.  How
> about I take responsibility for that?

This is something I think about every time I deal with pycurl -- it
requires a real file object, not just a pseudo-file such as StringIO or
NamedTemporaryFile.  And I can see why the impedence mismatch between
pycurl and the underlying libcurl discouraged the pycurl programmers from
Doing The Right Thing.

So although I agree with you and although I get regularly annoyed at
pycurl, I am somewhat hesitant to cast stones as people who get it Wrong.

On the gripping hand, I am somewhat likely to discard pycurl if I get
enough tuits...
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait
until you hire an amateur."  --Red Adair