[Python-Dev] Py2.6 ideas (original) (raw)

Raymond Hettinger raymond.hettinger at verizon.net
Thu Feb 15 20:59:38 CET 2007

Teach vars() to work with classes defining slots. Essentially, slots are just an implementation detail designed to make instances a bit more compact.
Make the docstring writable for staticmethods, classmethods, and properties. We did this for function objects and it worked-out well.
Have staticmethods and classmethods automatically fill-in a docstring from the wrapped function. An editor's tooltips would benefit nicely.
Add a pure python named_tuple class to the collections module. I've been using the class for about a year and found that it greatly improves the usability of tuples as records. http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/500261
Give builtin types a name attribute so that we have a uniform way of accessing type names.
Enhance doctest with a method that computes updated doctest results. If the only change I make to a matrix suite is to add commas to long numbers in the matrix repr(), then it would be nice to have an automated way to update the matrix output on all the other test cases in the module.
add an optional position argument to heapq.heapreplace to allow an arbitrary element to be updated in-place and then have the heap condition restored. I've now encountered three separate parties trying to figure-out how to do this.