d0c-s4vage/pfp

Don't cause an exception in _pfp__children

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#32 opened on Mar 3, 2016

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enhancementgood first issue

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Description

I don't know if this would break something but wouldn't be better to have every element default to have an attribute _pfp__children equal to an empty list?

This way when write something like obj._pfp__children in say, traversing the DOM's graph (DFS or alike) you don't have to worry about exceptions and the code is more succinct.

Right now I am using an auxiliary function like:

def has_children(n):
    """ Returns boolean """
    try:
        n._pfp__children
        return True

    except AttributeError:
        return False

but it looks cumbersome and feels more natural to return an empty list to the question "give me a list containing your children"

Anyway, awesome work man :+1:

Contributor guide

Research direction
Examine the codebase to find where the ` pfp children` attribute is accessed and consider adding an ` init ` method to the class to initialize it as an empty list. Also check for similar attributes that might benefit from the same treatment.
Tech stack
python
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Refactor
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
1
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
Under 1 hour
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
Python
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
80