[Python-Dev] PEP 318: Set attribs with .name = value

[Ka-Ping Yee]

Someone suggested the following syntax for setting function attributes:

    def func(arg, arg):
        .author = 'Guido van Rossum'
        .version = 42

Guido replied that he wanted to reserve ".name = value" for use in
"with" blocks.

These two uses are not in conflict at all -- in fact, they are
perfectly compatible and i find the syntactic consistency elegant.

I think the above syntax for function metadata is by far the cleanest
and simplest method i have seen, and its meaning is the most obvious
of all the proposed syntaxes.  After "def func...: .version = 42" it
makes sense that func.version should equal 42.

I am also happy with the idea of "with":

    with some[long].expression:
        .attrib = .something + something

It all fits together beautifully.

    def func(arg, arg) [optimized, classmethod]:
        .author = 'Sir Galahad'
        .version = 42
        """Description."""
        code
        more code


-- ?!ng