[Python-Dev] Making staticmethod objects callable? (original) (raw)

Nicolas Fleury nidoizo at yahoo.com
Thu Mar 16 23:58:27 CET 2006

Guido van Rossum wrote:

There's no need to change Python so that people coming from other languages won't make silly mistakes, is there?

Is that really a mistake... Yes, it's a mistake since staticmethod is a descriptor, but isn't it in a sense an implementation detail, particularly for a newbie? As Steven pointed, it is forcing to learn about descriptors. But I don't feel comfortable with that; I've always seen Python as a language that you can use with minimal knowledge. Again, I'm not thinking about anyone on this list.

BTW I question the claimed reflex -- assuming by "other languages" you mean Java or C++ (the only languages I know that have static methods) -- since those languages don't have the ability to call methods (static or otherwise) at class definition time.

Java, C++, C#. Yes, you're right, but the way I see it the first thing you learn in Python is that everything is dynamic. So I understand the reflex to quickly adapt the way you code to the new capabilities of Python.

So perhaps you need to dig deeper to find out why this is a recurring issue.

I think I understand why this is a recurring issue, but maybe I'm not good at explaining why. In the end, on that specific issue I think there's something to improve for newbies. The error message "'staticmethod' object is not callable" could also be changed to something like "'staticmethod' object is a descriptor and is not callable". Personally, I prefer the "it just works to ease your life" compromise (it doesn't hurt much, no?).

Note that it's not a big deal anyway and I hope it doesn't look like I want to argue; I just want to explain the issue.

Regards, Nicolas

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