[Python-Dev] New syntax for 'dynamic' attribute access (original) (raw)

Georg Brandl g.brandl at gmx.net
Mon Feb 12 08:58:17 CET 2007

Collin Winter schrieb:

I like the general idea, but the syntax looks like dirt on my monitor. The period is too easy to lose visually and without it, there's nothing to distinguish this from a function call. Also, like Anthony Baxter said, someone coming across this for the first time will think it's a syntax error, allusions to MATLAB and assembly indirection syntax not withstanding.

Ignoring the syntax, I'm -1 on the 2-argument form, especially since it can only be used in an expression context; getattr() can be kept around for this. I'm +0 on the idea, -1 on the means.

-1 here too. I fear that this gets too indistinguishable from normal calling syntax, leading to confusion.

(Of course, one could propose other syntax, such as obj->(attr) or whatnot, but I doubt an ideal and Pythonic syntax can be found here...)

To me, dynamic attribute access is something "special", and it justifies a different way of doing it, namely getattr and setattr.

For the speed argument -- there were quite a few proposals to take builtins as constants under certain conditions, in which case getattr() usage could be optimized just as well as new syntax.

Georg

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