[Tutor] Code critique please (OOP strategy)

[Michael P. Reilly]

On Mon, Dec 31, 2001 at 08:46:48AM -0600, Timothy Wilson wrote:
[rest snipped]
> > you could make a menu class or function, but all that would do is move the
> > code out of main.
> 
> Here's an example:
> 
> The main() function contains the following code to delete a stock:
> 
> elif choice.upper() == 'D':
>     ticker = raw_input("Delete which stock (type a ticker symbol): ")
>     for stock in p.contents:
>         if stock.ticker == ticker.upper():
>             p.delStock(stock)
>             print "Removed %s" % stock.ticker
> 
> The delStock method is:
> 
> def delStock(self, stock):
>     self.contents.remove(stock)
>     self.modified = 1
> 
> Is is correct to ask for the ticker symbol in the 'elif' or should I do
> that in 'delStock'? My reason for doing it the way I did was to make the
> code as reusable as possible. That may or may not be a valid reason in
> this case. I'd appreciate feedback on this point.

You might want to look at the cmd module; it's design is meant for
user keyboard input.

import cmd

class Portfolio(cmd.Cmd):
  prompt = '(O)pen existing portfolio or (M)ake a new one? '

  def __init__(self):
    cmd.Cmd.__init__(self)
    self.portfolio = None

  def do_M(self, args):
    self.portfolio = Portfolio()

  def do_O(self, args):
    file = raw_input("filename: ")
    self.portfolio = Portfolio(file)

class StockCmd(cmd.Cmd):
  prompt = '(A)dd/(D)elete stocks, (S)ave file, (U)pdate, ' \
           '(R)eport, or (Q)uit? '

  def __init__(self, portfolio):
    cmd.Cmd.__init__(self)
    self.portfolio = portfolio

  def do_A(self, args):
    ticker = raw_input("Ticket symbol: ")
    companyname = raw_input("Company name: ")
    ...
    p.addStock(s)

  def do_D(self, args):
  
  ...

then you create new instances of these classes:

cmd = PortfolioCmd()
cmd.onecmd()  # only one prompt and return
if cmd.portfolio is not None:
  StockCmd(cmd.portfolio).cmdloop()

This makes things a bit more extensible and teaches your students to
reuse library classes.

  -Arcege