Two Python questions

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Original post by Daniel Miller 1. Could you explain why most python programs check __main__ instead of simply calling main() (or even having a main() at all)?

Do you mean the if __name__ == '__main__' thing? That's to check if it's being loaded as a module or executed.

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2. Is it considered bad to use tuples instead of classes (for points, rects, etc.)?

I would say yes.

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Original post by Daniel Miller 1. Could you explain why most python programs check __main__ instead of simply calling main() (or even having a main() at all)?

Python executes top-down, beginning at the top of the file. Unlike in C, C++, C# and Java, main isn't a predefined symbol in Python; it has no special significance. The only way to determine that the current module is the execution entry point is to test the module name, which is set to __main__.

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2. Is it considered bad to use tuples instead of classes (for points, rects, etc.)?

Unequivocally.

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Original post by Anonymous Poster Quote: Original post by Oluseyi Unequivocally. Why? Why would anyone want to make a class of something as simple as a point when there are tuples?

If it's a class, you can easily add methods to operate on the point.

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Original post by Anonymous Poster Quote: Original post by Roboguy If it's a class, you can easily add methods to operate on the point. It's called over-engineering.

Assuming you are referring to creating a class for that:
Most likely, the methods will be something you'd create anyway to operate on the tuples (such as finding the distance between two points, etc) except if you made a class for it it would be (generally) more organized since you could see which functions operate on which type of data.

Okay, thanks everyone for your answers. :) I agree completely on the second point (I come from C#/C++). I asked because seemed that pygame used tuples for points, and it stuck out to me.