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encapsulation, typing & other questions

brueckd at tbye.com brueckd at tbye.com
Thu Feb 7 13:38:43 EST 2002 
On Thu, 7 Feb 2002, Ragu Bharadwaj wrote:

> Hi Guys,
> 	I'm considering Python for enterprise level development and being new
> to Python but having used ObjC & Java a lot, have the following
> questions. Any answers would be appreciated.

Hi Ragu!

> 1. Are there plans to include type support for method/function calls in
> Python? Seems like it would lead to much faster error detection &
> correction.

I don't know of any plans to do this, and the benefits are probably less
than you'd imagine. This issue tends to come up as a theoretical problem
much more often (if ever) than it does in practice.

> 2. How easy is it to use design patterns in Python? A lack of typing
> suggests it wouldn't be too easy, but I'd like to hear back from folks
> that have tried this.

Any particular patterns? Obviously patterns revolving around how to deal
with type systems won't be of much use, but lots of other patterns are
very applicable.

> 3. Are there plans to include method & variable encapsulation in the
> object models in python? The answer I've heard is that since it's
> possible to overcome encapsulation by long or dirty ways, it isn't worth
> it. But my comeback is that if one sticks to the rules while coding,
> this won't happen and the resulting gains are worth it.

Python does have method and variable encapsulation, and it eliminates the
accidental use of "protected" members. It is not, however, a babysitter
for people who cannot follow coding standards.

> 4. How advanced is db access in Python? Does it use connection pooling
> and other optimizations like the JDBC drivers?

There are extension modules for the most popular databases (Oracle, MySQL,
Postgres, etc). Also, you *can* use the JDBC drivers themselves - just use
Jython. It works very, very well.

-Dave
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