[Zope3-dev] Re: Using classes as constants for security settings

[Steve Alexander]

Chris Withers wrote:
> Steve Alexander wrote:
> 
>>     def _setDescription(self, description):
>>         self._description=description
>>
>>     def getDescription(self):
>>         return self._description
>>
> 
> What's description used for?

Actually, the more important question is "what's __str__ and __repr__ 
used for?".

I'd like to be able to do this:

 >>> from Settings import Allow

 >>> print "My setting is %s" % Allow
My setting is Allow

With integer constants, I'd get:

 >>> print "My setting is %s" % Allow
My setting is 23

Or whatever. Which isn't so informative in logs or debug output.
Then again, this might be more sensible:

Allow: 1
Unset: 0
Deny: -1
Assign: 1
Remove: -1

I still prefer something that will give me text, over numbers.


> 'cos aside from that, they could be just integer literals with names defined
> somewhere, which would be much quicker no matter how you slice it.

Comparing integers be identity shouldn't be much quicker than comparing 
classes by identity.

--
Steve Alexander