[Python-Dev] Re: Another approach to decorators. (original) (raw)

David Abrahams dave at boost-consulting.com
Thu Aug 12 20:10:37 CEST 2004

Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> writes:

[Various proposals suggesting the use of a single decorator block to decorate multiple method definitions]

I'm not keen on this. I expect that beyond classmethod and staticmethod there aren't many use cases for repeating the same decorator exactly multiple times. It also requires indenting the method, which I've already argued against. And lastly it removes the decorator from the method definition again, thereby defeating the readability goals: when you look at a def in isolation, you may forget to look several pages up for a decorator. I think this is too far-fetched to consider as an alternative to the humble @decorator.

Maybe, but if you're still serious about improving support for domain-specific embedded languages in Python you ought to give the ideas another look. If a reasonable syntax for decorators falls out of a more general and useful mechanism, so much the better.

-- Dave Abrahams Boost Consulting http://www.boost-consulting.com

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