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

Dave Harrison dave at nullcube.com
Sun Mar 28 23:49:48 EST 2004

> > and wouldn't bother with staticmethods at all. How often do you > > actually need a staticmethod in particular and not a classmethod? > > It's quite useful to be able to develop, essentially stateless, static > method utility libraries that dont need to be class based. Why create

I'm not sure I understand. Why not make them module-level functions?

Let me give an example. Lets say I want to do a generic transformation of a dict, like reversing the key and value positions

a = {'a':1, 'b':2}

and I want to invert it to

b = {1:'a', 2:'b'}

using my function invert()

That's generic enough that I could use it in heaps of places, but I dont want to have to either put it in an object, or cut and paste the code across, so as you say, I have a utility module, but it doesn't need to be a class (I understood from your email that all functions would require a class item with your suggested syntax - as below).

def foo(class cls, x, y)

Example isn't fantastic shrug, but there are time when you have something you need to do in a bunch of places, it's not in the current libraries, and you don't need it to be a in a class.

It might be that I've missed the point entirely, and that you were only referring to methods within a class. In which case I'll be quiet ;-) In fact in re-reading your mail, that might be the case entirely chuckle

-- Dave Harrison Nullcube dave at nullcube.com http://www.nullcube.com

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