4 ms·

Python’s httplib uses print for debugging. Oh, it hurts…

27 points by ihodes 16y ago

Estragon 16y ago
Fixing this is a minor rototilling exercise. Just change the print statements to something more sensible and submit a patch.
- wildjim 16y ago
  But I've seen this sort of crap in all sorts of "standard" lib's in Python, and it never seems to get cleaned-up... ... I really hate having to use Python.
  - j_baker 16y ago
    Every language and library has its warts and Python is no exception. By and large though, I'd say that Python's standard library is the best part of the language. Sure there are a lot of things like this out there, but for the most part, the standard library "just works" the way it's supposed to.
  - rue 16y ago
    > But I've seen this sort of crap in all sorts of "standard" lib's in Python, and it never seems to get cleaned-up... I assume you meant to write "I've seen this sort of crap and written patches for it"?
    - i386 16y ago
      Thank you. This is the wonderful thing about opensource - you can fix it if its broken - its the price you pay for getting it for nothing.
      - nailer 16y ago
        That's not a price, it's an additional benefit.
jokull 16y ago
Check out restkit (http://github.com/benoitc/restkit http://github.com/benoitc/restkit) - much better then urllib/2 or httplib/2
- brodie 16y ago
  What's wrong with httplib2?
  - jokull 16y ago
    It actually uses httplib1 under the hood which I've had weird problems with (even when using the httplib2 abstraction). Restkit has a better interface and really cool filters for such things as proxies.
  - est 16y ago
    and urllib3 http://code.google.com/p/urllib3/ http://code.google.com/p/urllib3/
ErrantX 16y ago
Httplib has caused me headaches in the past (admittedly due to a very specific and convoluted architecture). But I wouldn't call it bad... the point made here is simply an issue of not considering scale - in this case easily fixed. I would call it slow.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
gxti 16y ago
It's a debugging feature. It scratched a particular itch that a particular developer had at the time that they wrote it. If it weren't there at all, would this blog post still have been written?
TimothyFitz 16y ago
This code is almost as old as the web itself. The debug loglevel stuff was in the original check-in in 1994, by Guido himself: http://svn.python.org/view/python/trunk/Lib/httplib.py?revision=3849&view=markup http://svn.python.org/view/python/trunk/Lib/httplib.py?revis... A simple find-replace would be enough to switch it over to python's built-in logging module.
japherwocky 16y ago
Curious what you're using httplib for? 80% chance you're reinventing a wheel.
- fauigerzigerk 16y ago
  Sometimes reinventing something as simple as the wheel is more robust than adapting someone elses equally half baked and unmaintained attempt at wheel reinvention from 2002.
losethos 16y ago
single stepping is for those who can't read code

27 points by ihodes 16y ago

Fixing this is a minor rototilling exercise. Just change the print statements to something more sensible and submit a patch.

wildjim 16y ago
But I've seen this sort of crap in all sorts of "standard" lib's in Python, and it never seems to get cleaned-up... ... I really hate having to use Python.
- j_baker 16y ago
  Every language and library has its warts and Python is no exception. By and large though, I'd say that Python's standard library is the best part of the language. Sure there are a lot of things like this out there, but for the most part, the standard library "just works" the way it's supposed to.
- rue 16y ago
  > But I've seen this sort of crap in all sorts of "standard" lib's in Python, and it never seems to get cleaned-up... I assume you meant to write "I've seen this sort of crap and written patches for it"?
  - i386 16y ago
    Thank you. This is the wonderful thing about opensource - you can fix it if its broken - its the price you pay for getting it for nothing.
    - nailer 16y ago
      That's not a price, it's an additional benefit.

jokull 16y ago

Check out restkit (http://github.com/benoitc/restkit http://github.com/benoitc/restkit) - much better then urllib/2 or httplib/2

brodie 16y ago
What's wrong with httplib2?
- jokull 16y ago
  It actually uses httplib1 under the hood which I've had weird problems with (even when using the httplib2 abstraction). Restkit has a better interface and really cool filters for such things as proxies.
- est 16y ago
  and urllib3 http://code.google.com/p/urllib3/ http://code.google.com/p/urllib3/

ErrantX 16y ago

Httplib has caused me headaches in the past (admittedly due to a very specific and convoluted architecture). But I wouldn't call it bad... the point made here is simply an issue of not considering scale - in this case easily fixed. I would call it slow.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

gxti 16y ago

It's a debugging feature. It scratched a particular itch that a particular developer had at the time that they wrote it. If it weren't there at all, would this blog post still have been written?

TimothyFitz 16y ago

This code is almost as old as the web itself. The debug loglevel stuff was in the original check-in in 1994, by Guido himself: http://svn.python.org/view/python/trunk/Lib/httplib.py?revision=3849&view=markup http://svn.python.org/view/python/trunk/Lib/httplib.py?revis... A simple find-replace would be enough to switch it over to python's built-in logging module.

japherwocky 16y ago

Curious what you're using httplib for? 80% chance you're reinventing a wheel.

fauigerzigerk 16y ago
Sometimes reinventing something as simple as the wheel is more robust than adapting someone elses equally half baked and unmaintained attempt at wheel reinvention from 2002.

losethos 16y ago

single stepping is for those who can't read code