[Python-Dev] Re: Re: Call for defense of @decorators (original) (raw)

Johannes Gijsbers jlg at python.org
Fri Aug 6 18:52:28 CEST 2004

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 11:39:34 -0400, Barry Warsaw wrote:

= wasn't bad at all. It also had a bullet list feel to it, but without the discomfort of using stars. This was my favorite of the alternatives.

'=' has too srong an association with assignment for me, The first thing I wondered was where the '=' was assigning to. Then I realized that, in the context of decorators, it has to be the function/method that follows. So in the following example:

=classmethod def foo(arg1,arg2): ...

'foo' '=' a classmethod. This does broaden the meaning of '=' from just equality of identity to belonging to a group, but that's mostly okay. However, the next example really bugs me:

=accepts(int,int) =returns(float) def bar(low,high): ...

'bar' '=' in no sense an 'accepts' or a 'returns'. It doesn't seem right to use an assignment operator for decorating.

Keeping Tim's comments about ':' in mind, my personal favorite is '|'.

Johannes

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