Newb question: underscore

[Skye]

What is this doing?

print >fd, _(__doc__)
I'm guessing line-splitting __doc__ into a list, but what's that
leading underscore do?

Thanks!

[Ben Finney]

Skye <sp****@gmail.comwrites:

What is this doing?

print >fd, _(__doc__)

Without any context, it's impossible to know.

I'm guessing line-splitting __doc__ into a list, but what's that
leading underscore do?

Look at the rest of the module to see where that name comes from;
perhaps an assignment, or an 'import foo as _'.

My guess would be someone has used the common convention of naming the
"get the corresponding localised version of this string from the
application's gettext database" function as '_' for convenience.

That's only a guess though; you should believe the code you have in
front of you, not my guesses.

--
\ "Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?" "Well, I think |
`\ so, Brain, but 'apply North Pole' to what?" -- _Pinky and The |
_o__) Brain_ |
Ben Finney

[Gary Herron]

Skye wrote:

What is this doing?

print >fd, _(__doc__)
I'm guessing line-splitting __doc__ into a list, but what's that
leading underscore do?

It's calling a function with a single argument, like sqrt(x), except the
function is named _ and the argument is named __doc__. The underscores
have no special significance here, but they do make the code hard to read.

The first part of the statement directs the print to send the output to
a file, named fd, which was presumably opened earlier ... but I don't
think that was part of your question.

Gary Herron

Thanks!
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[Skye]

Ohh, it's a function _() call. Now it makes sense.

Of course Python would be consistent... I was expecting trickery!

It's actually from the Mailman source, def _(s) is a string function
for i18n

Thanks,
Skye

[bvdp]

My guess would be someone has used the common convention of naming the
"get the corresponding localised version of this string from the
application's gettext database" function as '_' for convenience.

Funny that this comes up.

I just noticed this in some code I was looking at the other day. A
number of statements in the form:

print _(something)

My question is: Why would anyone decide to obfuscate something as easy
to read as Python??? At first I thought that they were making a function
out of print (which makes some sense), but I don't think that is the
case. I tried (not very hard) to trace back the code to figure out where
_() is being assigned, but gave up. Oh, this is in the gdesklets package
if anyone is interested.
**** Listen to my CD at http://www.mellowood.ca/music/cedars ****
Bob van der Poel ** Wynndel, British Columbia, CANADA **
EMAIL: bo*@mellowood.ca
WWW: http://www.mellowood.ca

[John Fabiani]

Skye wrote:

What is this doing?

print >fd, _(__doc__)
I'm guessing line-splitting __doc__ into a list, but what's that
leading underscore do?

Thanks!

I think it is standard practice to use the underscore for unicode converts.

[Ben Finney]

bvdp <bo*@mellowood.cawrites:

My question is: Why would anyone decide to obfuscate something as easy
to read as Python???

They didn't decide to obfuscate; they decided to follow a
strongly-expected convention for the name of that function by existing
users of the 'gettext' functionality, in contexts that predate the
appearance of that functionality in Python.

--
\ Hercules Grytpype-Thynne: "Well, Neddie, I'm going to be |
`\ frank." Ned Seagoon: "Right, I'll be Tom." Count Moriarty: |
_o__) "I'll be Gladys." *slap* -- The Goon Show, _World War I_ |
Ben Finney

[cokofreedom]

My question is: Why would anyone decide to obfuscate something as easy

to read as Python???

They didn't decide to obfuscate; they decided to follow a
strongly-expected convention for the name of that function by existing
users of the 'gettext' functionality, in contexts that predate the
appearance of that functionality in Python.

Well _ can also mean the previous output statement that wasn't null,
so it has OTHER uses...

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

co*********@gmail.com a écrit :

>>My question is: Why would anyone decide to obfuscate something as easy
to read as Python???

They didn't decide to obfuscate; they decided to follow a
strongly-expected convention for the name of that function by existing
users of the 'gettext' functionality, in contexts that predate the
appearance of that functionality in Python.

Well _ can also mean the previous output statement that wasn't null,

In the shell only IIRC.

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

John Fabiani a écrit :

Skye wrote:

>What is this doing?

print >fd, _(__doc__)
I'm guessing line-splitting __doc__ into a list, but what's that
leading underscore do?

Thanks!

I think it is standard practice to use the underscore for unicode converts.

Actually, it's for i18n, not for encoding.