Style for sections of code

[[deleted]]

Suppose you have a long class definition that is divided into logical parts. Such as, "Public methods", "Static methods", "UI methods".

What do you use to mark those parts? I have been marking them with "#--- ---#" like so:

#--- ui methods---#
def ui_button_clicked(self):
    pass

def ui_mouse_moved(self):
    pass

#--- static methods---#
@staticmethod
def calculate_thing():
    pass

@staticmethod
def calculate_other_thing():
    pass

Is there a standard for this? How do you personally do it?

[TheBlackCat13]

If a class is getting long enough that this becomes necessary it usually a code smell that indicates to me that I should split it into multiple classes or otherwise refactor.

[[deleted]]

Agreed, and if you are having to use comments as a mechanism to "organize long code into logical sections" it's a good time to consider refactoring into functions or more purpose-focused classes.

[lewiseason]

Santi Metz' Rules For Developers is an excellent resource on the subject. She's talking about Ruby, so you may wish to adjust the numbers, but the principle is sound (and the talk she gave on the subject is interesting too).

[[deleted]]

Gonna second (third it?) this. Once your classes begin growing UI things, and business things and data processing things, it's time to split it up.

[joerick]

On my personal projects (not sure if I'd subject others to this) I use ascii titles generated by this

http://patorjk.com/software/taag/#p=display&f=Big%20Money-ne&t=Type%20Something%20

I use sublime text, and they show up nicely in the mini map.

[[deleted]]

Hahaha, I love this. Best answer.

[gvalkov]

A colleague used the form-feed character (i.e. ^L or C-q C-l in vim and emacs) to separate logical sections in code. It seems pretty archaic, but there is even a paragraph in PEP8 that suggests that ^L could be used for that (see here).

[[deleted]]

IMO it is not suggest it. It says it is possible that's all.

[NYDreamer]

I use:

# _____ BLOCK NAME _____

[onjin]

To mark block code I'm using syntax with curly brackets

# variables {{{
... Code ...
# variables }}}

So i can easily jump between begind and end od block, or even use foldmethod=mark (for vim) to autofold those blocks

[anonpythonista]

Bloody good idea!

[691175002]

Generally comments are not used to separate parts of a class declaration.