On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 5:22 PM, David Townshend <aquavitae69@gmail.com> wrote:
As has already been pointed out, syntax to allow compile-time optimisations doesn't really make much sense in python, especially considering the optimisations Pypy already carries out. Some sort of "finalise" option may be somewhat useful (although I can't say I've ever needed it). To avoid adding a new keyword it could be implementer as a function, e.g. finalise("varname") or finalise(varname="value"). In a class, this would actually be quite easy to implement by simply replacing the class dict with a custom dict designed to restrict writing to finalised names. I haven't ever tried changing the globals dict type, but I imagine it would be possible, or at least possible to to provide a method to change it. I haven't thought through all the implications of doing it this way, but I'd rather see something like this than a new "const" keyword.
While you won't see module level support (beyond the ability to place arbitrary classes in sys.modules), this is already completely possible through the descriptor protocol (e.g. by creating read-only properties). Cheers, Nick. -- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan@gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia