[Python-ideas] Re: A proposal (and implementation) to add assignment and LOAD overloading

Yanghao Hua wrote:

this one, on the other hand, is truly generic and universal.

The problem is that it's *too* universal. A __getself__ method would be a sorcerer's-apprentice kind of magic that you can't escape when you don't want it. Suppose you want to inspect an object for debugging purposes. If it has a __getself__ method that returns something other than itself, it would be impossible to even look at it without it morphing into something else.

Isn't the top level itself a namespace? isn't every function local itself a namespace?

Yes, but namespace-based magic is confined to the namespace you define it on. The proposed object-based magic would be completely inescapable. -- Greg