[Python-Dev] method decorators (PEP 318) (original) (raw)

Skip Montanaro skip at pobox.com
Fri Mar 26 14:33:00 EST 2004 

Robert> However, the idea of putting such attributes at the same level
Robert> as the rest of the function block is ugly to me--newbies are
Robert> going to go mad the first few times, trying to figure out *when*
Robert> such statements are evaluated.

An excellent point. It seems to me that @statements would have to be restricted to occur only at the beginning of a function (immediately after the def line or the docstring). If not, you'll probably get people (newbies at least) trying to write stuff like this:

def foo(a):
    if a > 5:
        @attr: "bob"
    elif a > 0:
        @attr: "skip"
    else:
        @attr: "guido"

The other forms (via a decorator, using explicit attribute assignments after the definition) make it explicit that these attribute assignments don't occur in the context of function execution.

Skip

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