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[Python-Dev] Re: closure semantics

Zack Weinberg zack at codesourcery.com
Fri Oct 24 17:16:27 EDT 2003 
"Phillip J. Eby" <pje at telecommunity.com> writes:

> At 01:39 PM 10/24/03 -0700, Zack Weinberg wrote:
>>class foo:
>>    A = 1  # these are class variables
>>    B = 2
>>    C = 3
>>
>>    def __init__(self):
>>       self.a = 4   # these are instance variables
>>       self.b = 5
>>       self.c = 6
>>
>>I find this imperative syntax for declaring instance variables
>>profoundly unintuitive.  Further, on my first exposure to Python, I
>>thought A, B, C were instance variables, although it wasn't hard to
>>understand why they aren't.
>
> A, B, and C *are* instance variables.  Why do you think they aren't?

You prove my point!  I got it wrong!  This is a confusing part of the
language!

> What good does declaring the set of instance variables *do*?  This
> seems to be more of a mental comfort thing than anything else.  I've
> spent most of my career in declaration-free languages, though, so I
> really don't understand why people get so emotional about being able
> to declare their variables.

Yeah, it's a mental comfort thing.  Mental comfort is important.
Having the computer catch your fallible human mistakes is also
important.

zw
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