[Python-Dev] PEP 8 and optional underscores (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Fri Jun 13 19:12:01 CEST 2008

On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 8:40 AM, Barry Warsaw <barry at python.org> wrote:

Ideally, I would like for those considerations [i.e. whether an access is expensive] to not enter into the API design. I'd rather keep it clean, with sufficient documentation to give hints about any additional costs involved. Logically .alive is a property, so I'd like to write it that way.

I beg to differ. Ideally, API design should suggest which operations are efficient and which ones aren't, in order to (subconsciously) help the developer develop a mental model about the performance characteristics of an API.

-- --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

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