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

[Paul Prescod]

Jim Fulton wrote:
> 
> ...
> 
> I'll be willing to give on this, however, I assert that
> a decision isn't a decision unless it's published.

Consider it published as soon as this email appears in the archives. :)

> It doesn't help when the people who made the decision
> can't seem to remember what it was. Supposedly, the
> decision was that DOM attributes are accessed as ordinary
> Python attributes, as in::
> 
>   foo.nodeName
> 
> yet several people seemed to think that attributes are obtained
> via accessor functions:
> 
>   foo._get_nodeName()

We agreed to support both. The former was more Pythonic and the latter
was CORBA compliant. Implementing both is only a very slight bit more
work than implementing one (not double the code or anything thanks to
__getattr__) so we decided to be both CORBA compatible and "friendly".
CORBA compliance has faded in importance so the getter function version
could be phased out but the usability argument for attributes remains
the same.

-- 
 Paul Prescod - Not encumbered by corporate consensus
When George Bush entered office, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found
that 62 percent of Americans "would be willing to give up a few of the
freedoms we have" for the war effort. They have gotten their wish.
	- "This is your bill of rights...on drugs", Harpers, Dec. 1999