[Tutor] Efficiency of Doxygen on Python vs C++?

[Eric Brunson]

Stephen McInerney wrote:
> Kent,
>
>   
>>> I was asking if it's a recognized good programming practice to
>>> declare and initialize *all* members in the class defn.
>>>       
>> What do you mean by "initialize *all* members in the class defn"?
>>     
> - obviously I meant to say do it in the __init__() method,
> I wrote the snippet as I was rushing out the door to an exam,
> but I think the intent was clear.
>
>   
>> If you mean to initialize the variables in the __init__() method:
>> maybe this is more common but I don't think I have ever seen it recommended 
>> to initialize all variables in the __init__() method. Certainly there are 
>> times when it makes sense to have some of the initialization in other 
>> methods that are called from __init__().
>>     
>
> I only said "make a token dummy assignment in __init__() to hint
> to the static analyzer the name and expected type, I didn't say
> "you must do all the actual initialization itself in __init__()".
>   

I guess my only thought is that this "static analyzer" is simply a 
holdover from your Java/C++ programming experience. It just doesn't 
really make sense in a dynamic language. I'd rather spend my time 
actually writing the documentation than litter my code so some other 
software can do it for me.

I'm not saying it isn't a good idea in Java, I'm just not sold on the 
concept in python. Just write doc strings, people have already written 
utilities to parse and display them.

> In the context of the original question
> "where and how should we assign class members in order
> to flag member names and types to static analyzers like
> Doxygen or pylint?"
> I understood that people were agreeing
> "Yes, assigning each member token values in the __init__()
> method is a good practice".
>
>   
>>> I think I'm hearing a general yes on that - any other opinions?
>>>       
>> Not sure where you think you are hearing a yes, I am hearing a lot of 
>> objections.
>>     
>
> No they didn't - they said that this cannot be done for true dynamic code,
> which is true, but obviously doesn't apply to working with
> static analysis tools, which is what the question was about.
>
> Regards,
> Stephen
>
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