Every now and then I run into a situation where I want to know whatattributes on an object are getting accessed when. Fortunately it'spretty easy to knock together something to do this, in a variant onthe mutating proxy pattern .

Here is a sample implementation, as a Tracer class:

def _repon(obj, n):  return (not obj._t_il) or \         (n in obj._t_il)class Tracer(object):  def __init_

From an article by Henri Sivonen :

Draconian error handling creates an unstable equilibrium in GameTheory terms—it only lasts until one player breaks therule. One non-Draconian XML5 implementation in a key client productand the Draconian XML ranks would break.

(Discovered through Mark Pilgrim ,specifically his firehose .)

Applications to XHTML are left as an exercise for the reader.

There are two sorts of secrets in the world: known secrets and unknownsecrets.

A known secret is something that people already know exists; forexample, your root password is a known secret. Keeping a known secretis simple: you just don't tell people your root password. You haveto guard known secrets against inadvertent disclosure (it's alwaysembarrassing to type your root password into the wrong window), butthat's mostly it.

(I am ignoring the possibility of deliberate attacks against the