[Python-Dev] PEP 244 syntax

[Martin v. Loewis]

> Well, I guess I would care enough :-) Martin has to change the PEP
> though, since he's the PEP author.

I don't like having an equal sign there, but I can add this as an
alternative and leave it for BDFL pronouncement (and count votes in
favour or against).

In any case, I'd need to know what the exact proposed change to PEP
244 is. The syntax currently reads

directive_statement: 'directive' NAME [atom] [';'] NEWLINE

How do you want this to change?

> I think that supporting the typical "key = value" format is
> quite reasonable for setting flags in the compiler. The PEP's
> original idea of replacing your "from __future__ import spam"
> does not require this format, since is only needs to support
> switches.

Actually, based on Tim's objections, I need the syntax in a different
way:

directive transitional generators

Here, "directive transitional" indicates that a transitional feature
is being activated, followed by the name of the feature. This is in
line with

directive transitional nested_scopes

Spelling them as

directive transitional = nested_scopes
# or
directive transitional = 'nested_scopes'

doesn't sound right, since I'm not assigning to "transitional".

Of course, since this directive is spelled "from __future__ import"
these days, the only remaining application for directives is the
unicodeencoding directive. I'm just pointing out that adding an equal
sign likely restricts the applicability of directives.

Regards,
Martin