Leading Underscores (was Re: [Zope] zope product problem)

[Jim Washington]

Dominique Lederer wrote:

>
> > Did you create a new instance before clicking the "properties" tab?
> >
> > An old instance with a ._question property will not have a .question 
> > property, unless you take special pains to update the old instance.
>
> thanks a lot, that helped!
>
> can you explain me in short words, when you use a ._question prop and 
> when 
> a .question prop ?
> what?s the difference ? i read it has something to do with Acquisition, 
> but i didn't understand it.
> or maybe a link to a good explanation.
>
> greets HakTom
>
>
I could not find a really good link, and it would be a good idea to look 
at the source of some of the Zope products out there, to get an idea of 
"best practice."

In Zope2, names with leading underscores are considered private and are 
not available through the web.  You cannot access myObject._myVar in 
DTML with <dtml-var _myVar>.  myObject._myVar also is not available in 
python script objects.

These variables are not completely unreachable, however.  You can 
provide public getter() and setter() methods with appropriate security 
declarations for access or modification.  This may be useful, for 
example, if Zope's security does not do everything you need, or if you 
need to do something special before modifying a value.  That these names 
do not participate in (unintended) acquisition may also be good.

So, in my opinion, if you need these values to be private, or if they 
need special control, or if you think "explicit is better than implicit" 
is a good idea for your product, use a leading underscore in the name.  
It's less convenient to have to create setters and getters, but the 
added security and predictability might be worth it.

Caveat: The leading-underscore-means-private policy probably will change 
in Zope3.

Hope this helps.

-- Jim Washington