[Python-Dev] Computed-attributes

[Paul Prescod]

Gordon McMillan wrote:
> 
> ... 
> Then:
> 
> class A:
>   def __init__(self):
>      self.y = <something>
> class B(A):
>   def __set_y__(self, value):
>      ...
>   def __init__(self):
>     A.__init__(self)
> 
> means that the hook in B will be invoked when A.__init__
> runs. I wonder what "gotchas" lie in wait ;-).

Python is full of these gotchas. (__setattr__ has the same problem, for
example). It's amazing that anything ever works. :) For any lurkers: my
tongue is firmly in my cheek!

> [I also note that there are quite a few Python developers who
> want their users to say "x = obj.getx()", but want Python to
> create the accessor method "getx(self)" (if they haven't written
> one) and outlaw "x = obj.x". I have no sympathy for them, but
> they exist.]

Java-heads.

-- 
 Paul Prescod - Not encumbered by corporate consensus
"Hardly anything more unwelcome can befall a scientific writer than 
having the foundations of his edifice shaken after the work is 
finished.  I have been placed in this position by a letter from 
Mr. Bertrand Russell..." 
 - Frege, Appendix of Basic Laws of Arithmetic (of Russell's Paradox)