Re: Ten Essential Development Practices

Aahz wrote:

One of these days I'm going to figure out how to embody "Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!" Then I shall be enlightened. 

What don't you understand about it?  (This is a serious question -- I
can think of several answers to give you, but want to know what focus is
needed first.)


I wasn't expecting a serious answer to this, but here goes.

First, I wasn't a Python user when namespaces were introduced. It's hard for me to even imagine Python without namespaces. Did imported modules just go into the same namespace as everything else? Yuck. It's too bad this happened before there were PEPs so I could understand the design and what came before.

Is it the fact that Python is unimaginable without namespaces that makes them such a honking great idea? Aren't they somewhat of an obvious idea? Several other languages have them.

Was the implementation of namespaces easy or hard to explain?

I'd love to do more honking great ideas, but I'm not even sure what the Dutch ideal of a honking great idea is in the first place.
--
Michael Hoffman
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Ten Essential Development Practices
    ... one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!" ... I wasn't a Python user when namespaces were introduced. ... The Zen of Python is really a set of design principles (and some of them, like this one, are more specifically *language* design principles), not Essential Development Practices. ...
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