I have also often wondered if there could be something more turn-key for that bit at the bottom. Here is a suggestion I'll throw into the ring: sys.run_main() It goes at the bottom of the file, and basically just lets the programmer express what they want to happen. Easy to explain. The appropriate logic is buried in run_main(), checking if we're in the __main__ situation, and looking for a main() in the file and running it and probably some corner cases I haven't thought of. I figure sys is the right module, having argv and all that. I would prefer to not have the programmer need to resort to underbar __main()__ type naming to accomplish a thing that is so ordinary. If there were a syntax for this, visualize it showing up in the first day of Python class, at the bottom of hello.py or whatever. You want something easy to explain, not requiring a ton of attention for solving something that is actually quite routine. I don't mind making the name 'main' special, but you could have an option to specify a different function or make it more agnostic about the name in some other way. Best, Nick On Fri, Oct 1, 2021 at 12:36 PM Jonathan Crall <erotemic@gmail.com> wrote:
I was curious if / what sort of proposals have been considered for simplifying the pattern:
``` def main(): ...
if __name__ == "__main__": main() ```
I imagine this topic must have come up before, so I'd be interested in any relevant history.
But unless I'm missing something, it seems like adding some easier alternative to this cumbersome entrypoint syntax would be worth considering.
My motivation for writing this suggestion is in an attempt to stop a common anti-pattern, where instead of defining a `main` function (or a function by any other name) an simply calling that by adding the above two lines, a lot of Python users I work with will just start dumping their logic into the global scope of the module.
Needless to say, this can have consequences. If there was some default builtin, let's call it `__main__` for now (open to suggestions), that took a function as an argument and conditionally executed it if `__name__ == "__main__"` in the caller's scope, that would allow us to simplify the above boilerplate to a single line with no extra indentation:
``` def main(): ...
__main__(main) ```
In addition to being simpler, it would allow users to avoid the trap of adding logic that impacts the global scope. It would also save me some keystrokes, which I'm always grateful for.
Furthermore, it could be used as a decorator (and the use-case wouldn't be unreasonable!), and we all know how much new Python users love decorators when they find out about them.
``` @__main__ def main(): ... ```
Maybe having such a builtin would discourage globals and help new users get the use-decorators-everywhere bug out of their system.
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