Also, do y’all call main() in the if block or do you just put the code you want to run in the if block?

  • Lucy :3
    62•8 days ago

    Never heard of

    def main():
    pass

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

    ?

    • @grrgyle@slrpnk.net
      48•8 days ago

      I remember how weird this looked the first time I saw it and while I may now understand it, it still looks jank af

      • @frezik@midwest.social
        9•7 days ago

        Python: I’m so readable that I’m practically executable pseudo-code

        Also Python: if __name__ == '__main__': . . .

      • @bane_killgrind@slrpnk.netEnglish
        5•8 days ago

        Now think about this, you have logic that doesn’t make sense when run directly, but you need it to be a library.

        You have multiple name=main statements in some of your functions

        • @grrgyle@slrpnk.net
          2•7 days ago

          I’m not sure I’m following the implication. Name=main is for scripts primary, is it not?

          I’ve never thought to add more than one of these conditionals anyway…

          • @bane_killgrind@slrpnk.netEnglish
            2•7 days ago

            So you might have a script that does stuff as a library, and it should get environment variables and other info from the calling script. You use the same script for doing one off stuff on different computers.

            So you make it do something slightly different or make it set it’s path and look into the current folder when you run it directly. This change in logic could be in a few points in the script.

      • @Anomalocaris@lemm.ee
        4•7 days ago

        I still wonder why.

        unless it’s for something that you want to work as an importable module and a standalone tool, then why do you need that?

        • @Archr@lemmy.world
          3•7 days ago

          The main two reasons that I can think of to include this even when you have no intention of importing this as a library are:

          1. For unit testing you will need to import as a module.
          2. Sometimes I will run a python interactive interpreter and then import my script so that I can do some manual testing without needing to change my main function or if stmt.
        • nickwitha_k (he/him)
          1•7 days ago

          This is exactly why the conditional is used. It allows the script to function both as a standalone application and a library.

          ETA: Probably would make sense to just treat it as default behavior in the interpreter and only require the conditional to overwrite in cases where main is not the main function and/or pre-processing is needed.

        • @grrgyle@slrpnk.net
          1•7 days ago

          Oh that is a good point actually. It’s been a while since I have done any serious Python, so I’m not sure why you couldn’t just use convention instead of this conditional.

          For my part, if a Python script is meant to be executed, then I’ll give it a shebang, drop the .py, and simply mark it as executable in the filesystem. 🤷‍♂️

    • @HiddenLayer555@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      22•8 days ago

      Heard of it, was too lazy to do it that way.

      To be fair I now do it that way, but not when I was learning Python.

      • Lucy :3
        6•7 days ago

        Not having tons of code in one if statement, but in a function.

        • EthanEnglish
          2•7 days ago

          I thought you were saying to literally use def main(): pass, that’s why I was confused

          • Lucy :3
            1•6 days ago

            Oh, no, that’s just the usual placeholder. Though, … would also be valid iirc, and would fit better as a “TODO” placeholder

        • @IronKrill@lemmy.ca
          11•7 days ago

          And scope. Variables declared in the if can be read everywhere, variables declared in the function are limited to that function.