[Python-Dev] Re: new syntax for wrapping (PEP 318) (original) (raw)

Thomas Heller theller at python.net
Thu Feb 26 14:27:12 EST 2004

Christian Tismer <tismer at stackless.com> writes:

Thomas Heller wrote:

The above code looks like as someone forgot to actually initialize the class variable (probably not too likely with the name 'classmethod', but with other names): class klass: classmethod = 42 def foo():... Yes I know. I just wanted to encourage people to think of simpler alternatives but to spoil the language for tiny improvements. I didn't just want to say "this is ugly", but to think of ways to express "the following is meant to be a... method". Onw thing I could live with if I must is "class method", since it is similar to other languages. reminds-me-of-ternary-operators -- chris

For me, the advantage of the current

def foo(cls): ... foo = classmethod(foo)

is that it exactly describes what's going on. The difficulty, I would guess, to people coming from other languages, is that they are more used to (how can I explain it) a mental model where a compiler parses some syntax and generates code from that. In python, it is simply executable code, and it is executed.

I'm +1 on this proposed syntax

def foo(cls) [classmethod]:

since is it easy to parse to my own eye. And I think it is much easier to learn than list comprehensions have been when they were introduced.

I'm +2 on the cool stuff that would be possible with it.

I'm +0 (maybe even -0) because it moves Python further away from 'executable pseudocode'.

Thomas

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