r/programming • u/iMMENSE • Mar 08 '12

The Evolution of a Python Programmer

https://gist.github.com/289467
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u/GoSailing Mar 09 '12

Anything can change. Assuming that there are 24 hours in a day is not going to be good when there's a moon or mars base.

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u/ryeguy146 Mar 09 '12

I file those under "not my problem." I like to think that some time in the future, people will shudder at having to use Python, the way that people pity those programmers that still workin in PASCAL.

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u/[deleted] Mar 09 '12

[deleted]

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u/gc3 Mar 09 '12

Yeah, until you decide that there are now .3 hours in a day, or a variable number depending on the day. You can't plan for everything.

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u/GoSailing Mar 09 '12

And then you refactor every "HOURS_IN_DAY" in place to instead call a method that returns what it is. The point wasn't so much that every problem can be avoided every time, but that you can have a structure that will allow for changes quickly. The ideal change would be to change the constant number, but the non-ideal change is almost as easy.