More Considerations for Using Descriptors

Here, we'll discuss general considerations for descriptors in terms of what we can do with them, when it is a good idea to use them, and also how things that we might have initially conceived as having been resolved by means of another approach can be improved through descriptors. We will then analyze the pros and cons of the original implementation versus the one after descriptors have been used.

Reusing code

Descriptors are a generic tool and a powerful abstraction that we can use to avoid code duplication.

A good scenario where descriptors might be useful is if we find ourselves in a situation where we need to write properties (as in a method decorated with @property @<property>.setter or @<property>.deleter), but we need to do the same property logic multiple times. That is, if we needed something like a generic property, or else we'll find ourselves writing multiple properties with the same logic and repeating boilerplate. Properties are just a particular case of descriptors (the @property decorator is a descriptor that implements the full descriptor protocol to define its get, set, and delete actions), which means that we can even use descriptors to accomplish far more complex tasks.

Another powerful type we have seen for reusing code was ...