[XML-SIG] Ugh! Why are DOM access methods spelled with a leading '_'?

Dieter Maurer dieter@handshake.de
Sun, 25 Jun 2000 21:38:57 +0200 (CEST)


Paul Prescod writes:
 > >   The W3C documentation gives the IDL mapping, which requires the
 > > Python specific mapping.
 > 
 > Actually, the DOM can be mapped into a language in a manner that does
 > not follow directly from the IDL and CORBA specs. That's why there is a
 > formally defined java binding rather than just a reference to the IDL
 > specs. Historically, though, 4DOM was really a CORBA tool so it really
 > needed to follow the specs.
 > 
 > I would vote for losing the leading underscore. 
I would vote against.

  DOM is specified in terms of IDL.
  Python has an IDL -> Python mapping.
  Deviating from this mapping for DOM only would require special
  knowledge -- a thing I do not like.

I would not object, though, when the Python IDL mapping
would use the Java approach: prepend '_' only if doing
otherwise would introduce name clashes.


Dieter