[Python-Dev] PEP 343 update (with statement context terminology) (original) (raw)

Phillip J. Eby pje at telecommunity.com
Tue Apr 25 15:32:33 CEST 2006

At 07:24 PM 4/25/2006 +1000, Nick Coghlan wrote:

So things like decimal.Context get left trying to find a sane name for what their context method returns. decimal.Context.context() returns a . . . context? What? Wasn't it already a context? Oh, so it actually returns a "with statement context object". But that object still isn't really the context from a user's point of view - the context of interest to a user is the effect that object has on the runtime state (i.e. setting the decimal context for the current thread).

That said, that might actually still be salvageable if the term 'context object' is appropriately qualified. . . "when requested by the with statement, a context manager returns a with statement context object that sets up and tears down the desired runtime context"

If qualification of "context" is the only problem, I propose:

context manager -- thing with context method execution context object -- thing with enter/exit/context execution context -- the abstract thing set up and torn down by the ECO

"When requested by the with statement, a context manager returns an execution context object that sets up and tears down the desired execution context for the block."

And I still call for @contextfactory as a decorator that creates a factory function returning an execution context. I don't think that calling it an "executioncontextfactory" or "executionfactory" or anything like that adds anything useful; it is after all coming from a library for dealing with execution contexts, so it's sufficiently clear, um, in context. :)

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