[Python-Dev] Changes in html.parser may cause breakage in client code

Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Fri Apr 27 02:33:14 CEST 2012


On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 5:21 AM, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
> Traditionally we've been really lax about this stuff. We should strive
> to improve and clarify the exact boundaries of our APIs better.

Yeah, I must admit in my own projects these days I habitually mark all
module level and class level names with a leading underscore until I
make a conscious decision to make them part of the relevant public
API. I also do this for any new helper attributes and
functions/methods I add to the stdlib.

One key catalyst for this was when PJE pointed out a bug years ago in
the behaviour of the -m switch that meant I had to introduce a *new*
helper function to runpy, because runpy.run_module was public, and I
needed to change the signature in a backwards incompatible way to fix
the bug (and thus the current runpy._run_module_as_main hook was
born).

When I use dir() and help() as much as I do to explore unfamiliar
APIs, I feel obliged to make sure that introspecting my own code
accurately reflects which names are part of the public API and which
are just implementation details.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia


More information about the Python-Dev mailing list