[Tutor] Getting caller name without the help of "sys._getframe(1).f_code.co_name" ?

[patrice laporte]

2010/2/14 Luke Paireepinart <rabidpoobear at gmail.com>

> I see why you would want the error messages but why is the default error
> message not enough, that is why I am curious, and typically introspection on
> objects is not necessary (for example, people often want to convert a string
> into a variable name to store a value (say they have the string "foobar1"
> and they want to store the value "f" in the variable "foobar1", how do they
> change foobar1 to reference a string?  well you can just use exec but the
> core issue is that there's really no reason to do it in the first place,
> they can just use a dictionary and store dict['foobar1'] = 'f'  and it is
> functionally equivalent (without the danger in the code)).  I get the
> feeling that your issue is the same sort of thing, where an easier solution
> exists but for whatever reason you don't see it.  I don't know if this is
> true or not.  Here's my take on this:
>
> >>> class x(object):
>     def __init__(self, fname):
>         self.temp = open(fname).read()
>
>
> >>> a = x('foobar')
>
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "<pyshell#16>", line 1, in <module>               # this is the
> module it's in
>     a = x('foobar')                                                    #
> this is the line where I tried to initialize it
>   File "<pyshell#15>", line 3, in __init__                  # which called
> this function, which is the one that has the error
>     self.temp = open(fname).read()                          #and the error
> occurred while trying to perform this operation
> IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'foobar'  #and the error was
> that the file 'foobar' could not be found.
>
>
Hi and thank to everybody...

First of all, I consider my first question is now answered : I wanted to get
rid of that sys._getframe call, I got an explanation (thanks to Kent).

The rest of the discussion is not about Python, it's more about the way of
thinking how to help the user having à good feeling with your app.

I try to clarify my need and share you my anxiety. Of course, a lot of thing
are available with Python, from a coder point of view. But what I want to do
is to think about the user, and give him a way to understand that what he
did was wrong.

Traceback give me all I need, but my opinion is that it's not acceptable to
give it back to the user without a minimum of "décorating". I didn't yet
look at the logging module, and maybe it can help me to make that
décorating.

And the user must be a priority (it's still my conviction here)

My own experience is that there is too much coder that forget the app they
work on is aim to be used by "real human", not by C/C++/Python/put what ever
you want here/ guru : if your app popups to the user a message that is just
what the traceback gave, it's not a good thing : How can it be reasonable to
imagine the user will read that kinda message ? :

*Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#16>", line 1, in <module>
    a = x('foobar')
  File "<pyshell#15>", line 3, in __init__
    self.temp = open(fname).read()
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'foobar'
*

Of course the origin of his problem is in the message : "*No such file or
directory: 'foobar'*", but a customer will never read that @ù^$#é uggly
message, there is too much extraterrestrial words in it.

Traceback doesn' give more thant that, it doesn't say, as an example : we
(the name of app) was trying to open the file "foobar" in order to do
something with it (put here what it was supposed to do with the file) : app
failed to open it because "foobar" doen't exist.

According to me, traceback is what we need during "coding" phases, but it's
not something to give to the user.

This problem has to be solved by thinking the app in the way I'm trying to
explain  (but not only in that way) : think about the user. This is not
something I expect Python to do for me, I'm just looking for everything
Python can provide me to make me think about the user.

I'm new to Python, and I make a lot of exploration to understand and answer
myself to my question. Python library is huge, and I don't have as enough
time as I wanted to deal with it. But I'm conviced the solutions are here, I
don't try to re-invent the wheel...


Thant to you all.
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