choosing between Modules and Classes

Question

In my application I have to maintain some global application state and global application wide methods like currently connected users, total number of answers, create an application config file etc. There are two options:

1. Make a separate appstate.py file with global variables with functions over them. It looks fine initially but it seems that I am missing something in clarity of my code.

2. Create a class AppState with class functions in a appstate.py file, all other modules have been defined by their specific jobs. This looks fine. But now I have to write longer line like appstate.AppState.get_user_list(). Moreover, the methods are not so much related to each other. I can create separate classes but that would be too many classes.

EDIT: If I use classes I will be using classmethods. I don't think there is a need to instantiate the class to an object.

Answer 1

Consider this example:

configuration
|
+-> graphics
|   |
|   +-> 3D
|   |
|   +-> 2D
|
+-> sound

The real question is: What is the difference between classes and modules in this hierarchy, as it could be represented by both means?

Classes represent types. If you implement your solution with classes instead of modules, you are able to check a graphics object for it's proper type, but write generic graphics functions.

With classes you can generate parametrized values. This means it is possible to initialize differently the sounds class with a constructor, but it is hard to initialize a module with different parameters.

The point is, that you really something different from the modeling standpoint.