[Python-Dev] cpython: simplify and rewrite the zipimport part of 702009f3c0b1 a bit

[Guido van Rossum]

On Sat, May 26, 2012 at 2:07 AM, Larry Hastings <larry at hastings.org> wrote:
>
> On 05/25/2012 10:14 AM, Antoine Pitrou wrote:
>
> On Fri, 25 May 2012 18:57:57 +0200
> Georg Brandl <g.brandl at gmx.net> wrote:
>
> This is probably minor, but wouldn't it make more sense to have those
> constants uppercased?  At least that's the general style we have in
> the codebase for enum values.
>
> +1, this surprised me too.
>
>
> FWIW I contributed the utime enum with the lowercase values.  I don't
> uppercase enum values as a rule.
>
> Uppercasing preprocessor macros is a good idea because they're not safe.
> There are loads of ways they can produce unexpected behavior.  So if
> something funny is going on, and the code involves some preprocessor
> slight-of-hand, those identifiers pop out at you and you know to
> double-check them.  But enum values are as safe as houses.  I think of them
> as equivalent to const ints, which I also don't uppercase.  There's no need
> to draw attention to them.
>
> There's nothing in PEP 7 either way about enum nomenclature.  But Benjamin
> has already uppercased these (and some other) enums, so I suppose the
> community has spoken.

I think the convention is that constants are uppercased -- enums are
definitely constants. It helps the reader quickly to see what is
variable and what is constant in an expression -- when I see x == 42,
I know which is which, but when I see x == y, I don't. If I see x ==
Y, I know.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)