[dgplug-users] [OT] Object Calisthenics in Python

[Arnau Orriols]

Hi mates!

Yesterday, I somehow ended up attending a round table of a Software
Craftsmanship meetup group. All of them where Java and .NET
programmers, a lovely crowd (I asume most of you reading are Python
developers, right?). Among many topics discussed, one in particular
caught my attention. Object Calisthenics.

What is it about? In short, it is 9 rules that some guy named Jeff Bay
proposed in an essay [1] published in the ThoughtWorks Anthology [2]
for writting better Object Oriented code, and helping programmers to
apply to the SOLID principles.

The thing is, as an annoying noob I enjoy being, I started questioning
whether this rules would apply to all "Object Oriented" languages,
(even those more more dynamic, like Python), besides the obvious
languages this essay seems to be aimed.

I did not get the feedback I was kind of expecting, but it seemed to
me like they didn't gave it too much thought (I don't blame them, they
have enough to think about :). But I wonder whether any of you have
any opinion on this matter? Should we constraint our OO Python code to
all of these rules, some, none? Should we care at all? Can some of
these rules have any side-effects in the readability of our code?

Just something to get you guys thinking. And for those just starting
the summer code, happy learning! You'll get to answer this mail at the
end of the summer :)

[1] http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/luontola/tdd-2009/ext/ObjectCalisthenics.pdf
[2] http://pragprog.com/book/twa/thoughtworks-anthology

Arnau Orriols (AKA Josep Caselles)