From: Todd Benson <caduceass@...>
Date: 2009-04-14T09:04:47+09:00
Subject: double underscore nomenclature in Python

So, I'm stuck re-engineering some dreadful Python library code into
Ruby (and I mean terrible, a mish-mash of different clashing
programming paradigms -- inheritance, delegation, etc. severely
intertwined all over, ugghh), and I came across Python's use of these
double underscore methods (__hook_method__.  I'm a Python virgin; so
sue me.  Never learned Perl, either).

I'm curious as to why Ruby unintentionally keeps these type of things
less obvious.  I've seen many questions on this group concerning #puts
using an object's #to_s to display itself.  Don't get me wrong; it
doesn't bother me at all, but I've run across a few newbies that
struggle with this type of "hidden" guru knowledge (It's surely not
hidden, but not easy to discover either; sort of like a live
Architeuthis).

So, should one ingrain a style into the language (like the BeOS team
very strongly suggested with its C++ coding practice guidelines), or
keep it laid back and just be firm with people about reading the docs?

Todd