[Python-Dev] Identifier API (original) (raw)

Greg Ewing greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz
Sat Oct 15 01:32:50 CEST 2011

Martin v. Löwis wrote:

That wouldn't be instead, but in addition - you need the variable name, anyway.

But the details of exactly how the name is constructed could be kept as an implementation detail.

Not sure whether there is actually a gain in readability - people not familiar with this would assume that it's a function call of some kind, which it would not be.

To me the benefit would be that the name you write as the argument would be exactly the identifier it represents.

If you have to manually add a prefix, there's room for a bit of confusion, especially if the prefix itself ends with an underscore. E.g. if the identifier is "init" and the prefix is "PyID_", do you write "PyID__init__" (two underscores) or "PyID___init__" (three underscores?) And can you easily spot the difference in your editor?

-- Greg

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