A better self

[Huaiyu Zhu]

Sean 'Shaleh' Perry <shalehperry at attbi.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Before you all react (programmers can be SO conservative), please think
>> about it!
>> 
>
>I have played with ideas like this in python and other languages, and witnessed
>others do the same.
>
>.foo is REALLY hard to see if the font is not just right.
>
>.size = .r + .l
>
>is even worse.
>
>I am not 100% against the idea as an idea, but the actual usage is not all that
>fun.

A better (and currently available) convention is

_.size = _.r + _.l

It has been mentioned several times in this thread.  I've used it several
times in the past and liked it, esp in iterative algorithms.  Some usage
patterns include
    
    def __init__(_, x, y, z):
        _.x, _.y, _.z = x, y, z

    def process(_, x, y, z):
        actions involving _.x, _.y, _.z, x, y, z
        _.x, _.y, _.z = x, y, z

    def update(_):
        x, y, z = _.x, _.y, _.z 
        actions involving x, y, z
        _.x, _.y, _.z = x, y, z
    
One could even think of _. as a magic persistence prefix that makes the
variable keep its value between method calls.  It is also easy to replace
_.x with self.x or vice versa in a good editor.

Huaiyu