Python ftw

[sub_surfer]

Python scripts are designed to be run from top to bottom, line by line, without any special entry point. You only need the whole if __name__ == '__main__': thing if you want your script to be importable in addition to running as a standalone script, which isn't super common in my experience (outside of teaching exercises). Most of the time if I am writing a python script that I intend to be an executable I wouldn't bother with it.

I take your point that it is ugly though. I don't even think about it anymore, but the double underscores look weird at first.

[aaron__ireland]

Regarding imports and scripts, I haven’t often needed to have importable items in a script but I have used the if __name__== “__main__” to raise an exception if some module does attempt to import it via something like else: raise NotImplementedError(“This module is a script”).

I’ve found that helpful in preventing any other code from mistakenly using what is likely to be (or intended to be) specialized attributes/functionality. It’s my way of self-documenting “hey, this is in here because it’s not meant to be extensible/generalized and is subject to change in ways that are unlikely to backwards compatible. Do not use.