I've been tossing some ideas around w/r to adding pragma style declarations to Python and would like to hear what you think about these:
1. Embed pragma declarations in comments:
#pragma: name = value
Problem: comments are removed by the tokenizer, yet the compiler will have to make use of them, so some logic would be needed to carry them along.
2. Reusing a Python keyword to build a new form of statement:
def name = value
Problem: not sure whether the compiler and grammar could handle this.
The nice thing about this kind of declaration is that it would generate a node which the compiler could actively use. Furthermore, scoping would come for free. This one is my favourite.
3. Add a new keyword:
decl name = value
Problem: possible code breakage.
This is only a question regarding the syntax of these meta- information declarations. The semantics remain to be solved in a different discussion.
I say add a new reserved word pragma and accept the consequences. The other solutions are just too ugly. --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.pythonlabs.com/~guido/)