magic names in python

[Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch]

In <1180943167.241208.37080 at q75g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>, per9000 wrote:

> On Jun 4, 9:11 am, Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch <bj_... at gmx.net> wrote:
>> In <1180939436.862957.127... at p77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>, per9000 wrote:
>> >
>> > [...]
>> >
>> > So another question emerges:
>> >  * is the use of magic names encouraged and/or part of good coding
>> > practice.
>>
>> What do you mean by "use"?  Implement them to override behavior?  Yes,
>> that's their purpose.  Invent new magic names?  No of course not, they are
>> special for a reason:  preventing name clashes with the user's names.
>>
> 
> [in my taste: UGLY]
> I think of something like this: Perhaps I create a class that works
> with a lot of files, and with inheritance new types of files can be
> opened and worked with.
> 
> When it is time for an instance of this class to die the files need to
> be closed - perhaps "right now" and not when it is suitable for the
> garbage collector. To facilitate this I create a number of functions
> with names like close_*_file (f.x. close_indata_file,
> close_outdata_file, close_error_file etc). (compare with [PyTest|
> unittest] "test*" names.)
> 
> If this class has been inherited to some other class that works with
> more than one indata file perhaps we want to magically close all files
> that are open by calling all function in this instance that has names
> matching "close_*_file".
> 
> I would consider this an ugly way of solving it.
> 
> [in my taste: NICER]
> I'd perhaps add file-handles to some list (and encourage inherited
> classes to use this list) and close everything in the list. I would
> not use magic wildcard names.
> 
> So in other words: Do I need to go to yellow alert, and watch out for
> magic names in non-core add-on packages to python? Or should I just
> RTFM a little more? (I hate RTFM'ing.)

Now I'm a little confused.  What does this have to do with magic names?  I
thought you are talking about names that start and end with two
underscores (`__magic__`)!?

Ciao,
	Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch