Suggestions for good programming practices?

[David LeBlanc]

<snip>
>
> * Avoid exec, execfile, eval, and input.

Might one ask why? What do you have to know to use them successfully? Does
"input" imply that "input-raw" is also to be avoided?

Avoid "from foo import *"; this avoids unnecessary namespace pollution and
other forms of confusion.

> * Use local variables whenever possible.  Important in Python because
>   local variables are much faster than global.  In practice, this
>   means that people will often put their main code in a function, and
>   call it with the "if __name__=='__main__': main()" cliche.

Does code run at global scope pay a global scope lookup cost?

And for large loops in defs that use class instance data, copying the data
to a local variable to avoid the lookup cost each time through the loop.
(Does copying globals to local also give a speed gain?)

class myclass():
	def __init__(self):
		self.min = 1
		self.max = 1000
	def loop(self):
		min = self.min
		max = self.max
		for i in range(min,max):
			print i

> * Learn how references and the object system work as soon as possible.
>   You should not be surprised when you do this:
>
>   a = [1,2,3]
>   b = a
>   b[0] = 100
>   print a
>
>   And it prints "[100,2,3]"

The one that always gets me is "lat,lon,timezone = getLocation("seattle")".
I.E. the ability to return multiple distinct values as opposed to returning
multiple values in the form of a struct as in C or C++.

I would add to the list:
* Learn to think in OO and pattern concepts.

> --
> CARL BANKS                                http://www.aerojockey.com
> "Nullum mihi placet tamquam provocatio magna.  Hoc ex eis non est."

Dave LeBlanc
Seattle, WA USA

" Curses! self.bdfl will never work! Back to the drawing board Pinky!"