How did python handle forward declaration?

[Ben Hutchings]

javalist <javalist at 21cn.com> writes:

> Hello python-list,
> 
>         in c/c++ we can use class xxx or struct xxx to forward
>         declared what we really implement later,how python work this
>         out?

C and C++ compilers try to resolve all identifiers and type names at
the point they are used, at compile time.  This is a problem if you
need to define two classes/structures that refer to each other.  For
some purposes they can accept a declaration that promises there will
be a definition somewhere else (later, or in another translation
unit), and that's how you deal with that need.

Python is a much more dynamic language, which postpones almost all
name resolution to run-time.  The external things (classes, modules,
etc) that a piece of code relies on just need to be defined at the
time it gets to run.  When you define a class, none of the code in its
member functions runs, so you can define two classes/structures that
refer to each other without any need for forward-declarations.

You might have problems in Python if you want to define mutually-
dependent modules, but then a mutually-dependent set of modules
is effectively just one module and should be defined as such.

-- 
Any opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of Roundpoint.