On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 9:16 AM, Antoon Pardon <antoon.par...@rece.vub.ac.be> wrote: > Op 19-08-13 09:45, Dave Angel schreef: >> Antoon Pardon wrote: >>> I think you are overstating your case. Classes and functions are >>> variables too and in general nobody seems to have a problem with them >>> being global. >>> >> >> It's global *variables* that are to be avoided. constants like clsases >> and functions are fine. On the other hand, class attributes can be >> variable, and thus are to be avoided when reasonable. > > Python has no constants. Classes and functions can be changed just like > any other variable. I agree that classes and function are generally > meant to be constant, but often enought so are global int variables.
# telnet.py IAC = 0xFF GA = 0xF9 WILL = 0xFB WONT = 0xFC DO = 0xFD DONT = 0xFE # connection.py from telnet import IAC,DO,DONT To be sure, Python won't stop me from changing the value of DONT. But it's a constant, and its value is defined elsewhere (RFC 854). (In this instance, an enum would probably be the better option; but this is an example of a more general case.) In connection.py, I don't care that I've taken a "copy" of the integer 0xFE. It's never going to change; it is a constant in the best tradition of "named number". I could hard-code 0xFE everywhere and the code would work *just fine*, but it'd be less readable, so I don't. Python does have constants. It just doesn't have interpreter support for them. Same as private members, in fact. ChrisA -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
