[Python-Dev] Set the namespace free! (original) (raw)

gregory.smith3 at sympatico.ca gregory.smith3 at sympatico.ca
Thu Jul 22 23:01:37 CEST 2010

Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:49:17 -0400 Subject: Re: [Python-Dev] Set the namespace free! From: alexander.belopolsky at gmail.com To: gregory.smith3 at sympatico.ca CC: python-dev at python.org

On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 12:53 PM, <gregory.smith3 at sympatico.ca> wrote: .. > So, ::name or &name or |name or whatever. > > I'm very amused by all the jokes about turning python into perl, but there's > a good idea here that doesn't actually require that... No, there isn't. And both '&' and '|' are valid python operators that cannot be used this way.

Um, of course. Serious brain freeze today, using too many languages at once. Yeah, that's it.

Despite my knuckleheadedness, I say there's still a hole here that can be easily plugged. it's clumsy that you can't call, e.g.

GenerateURL( reqtype='basic', class='local')

other than by

GenerateURL( **{'reqtype': 'basic', 'class': 'local'})

... just because 'class' is a keyword. That's letting a parser issue degrade the value of a really good feature. Likewise for attributes; python allows you to have named parameters or attributes called 'class' and 'import' if you like; it just doesn't let you write them directly; this restriction doesn't seem to be necessary except for the parse issue, which is fixable. I.e. nothing would break by allowing GenerateURL(::class = 'local') or Request.::class.

See my previous longer post for the full discussion (not the short stupid one).

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