[Python-Dev] Namespaces (original) (raw)

Aahz aahz@pythoncraft.com
Sat, 6 Apr 2002 09:31:48 -0500

On Sat, Apr 06, 2002, Martin v. Loewis wrote:

Aahz <aahz@pythoncraft.com> writes:

Rebinding a does not affect the originally bound object (unless the originally bound object's reference count goes to zero). Any ideas about what to call ? (Calling it a binding sounds a little too self-referential.) That is a "name".

I'm willing to go along with that if others agree.

Furthermore, some attributes live in multiple namespaces. Given

obj.name what namespace is considered to find the name? NOT the namespace of obj, alone - Python also considers the namespace of obj's class (if obj is an instance), of the base classes, etc. OTOH, obj.name = None modifies the namespace of obj (unless name is a computed attribute). I'm saying that name lookup considers multiple namespaces in some cases: class X: ... name = 1 ... x.name 1 x.dict.haskey("name") 0

You left out x=X()?

So saying that x.name yields the value from searching the name in the namespace of x is wrong.

Sure, no argument here. Right now, I'm trying to settle the issue of creating bindings before getting into the topic of namespace lookups.

Aahz (aahz@pythoncraft.com) <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"There are times when effort is important and necessary, but this should not be taken as any kind of moral imperative." --jdecker