Re: [Cheetahtemplate-discuss] Proposal: eliminate .addToSearchList and .prependToSearchList

[<ja...@la...>]

On Saturday 02 November 2002 02:53 am, Mike Orr wrote:
> The problem with .add/prependToSearchList is not that they don't work,
> it's that I don't like the idea of the searchList being mutable.
> you control the template instantiation, it seems like an unnecessary
> complication.  If you don't control the instantiation, then it seems
> doubly important that you don't add/delete searchList objects, because
> then your changes leak into other portions of code you don't control,
> and that violates the principle of encapsulation.
ok, not sure i entirely follow you, so i'll just do as you say until i kn=
ow=20
what you mean. ;-) what do you mean me control, you control?

> I'm trying to prevent you from painting yourself in a corner as your
> application gets bigger and more complicated with dozens of templates,
> and it becomes difficult to keep track of which template instances have
> object A added/prepended at which points in the code, and which don't.
> That's the beauty of immutability.  Like a tuple:
> =09(myDict, myInstance)
> you cannot add/delete elements from this tuple.  But you can modify
> myDict and myInstance as much as you like.  If we make the searchList
> immutable, there is *one* place you can quickly look -- the
> instantiation line -- to see exactly what the searchList contains.  And
> you are guaranteed that it will never change (absent .append/.insert
> shenanegans).
ok, i think i'm following you there -- makes sense.

> Actually, shall we just go all the way and make the searchList a
> tuple in .__init__?  Does Cheetah need to use list methods on it?

are you saying, just to be really sure people don't use append/insert? su=
re,=20
why not? I don't know, you guys are the smart ones. ;-)

> Thanks.   Your questions help us see what needs to be explained better
> in the docs and future FAQ.  Also, when you describe your real-world
> situations and problems you have using Cheetah with them, it helps us
> see how Cheetah can be improved.  We are always looking to add features
> that solve a general class of problem; that is, something a variety of
> users will want.  You may not even realize it at the time, but it may
> turn out later that "your" problem was not just your esoteric
> situation, but a fundamental weakness in Cheetah that you were the firs=
t
> to discover.

cool how you kinda switched that around to thanking me for asking dumb=20
questions. sometimes people can be too nice, you know!! :-)

> > i wish
> > we had a #cheetah channel to get around the latency of the list
> I don't do IRC, but if you start a channel on irc.debian.org maybe
> you can convince others to participate.  I prefer e-mail or the
> phone.  E-mail because you can collect your thoughts and then have
> a message you can save in case it becomes useful later, and the
> phone because you can discuss in thirty seconds what it takes
> several minutes (and lots of carpal-inducing keystrokes) to type.

i used to not do irc, but then i started doing stuff that seemed to have =
a big=20
irc presence and a slight lack of adequate docs (ie, installing linux on=20
ipaqs) and i started to get into it. i still pretty much only pop in to a=
sk a=20
question, but some people seem to live in irc. i usually hang out  -- wel=
l,=20
pop into when i need help ;-)   -- irc.openprojects.net, in #python, #gen=
too,=20
etc... (i kinda switched from debian to gentoo a few months ago, on serve=
rs=20
and everything..)