[Python-Dev] Re: new syntax for wrapping (PEP 318)

[Michael Chermside]

I've been reading the hailstorm of comments on PEP 318. Yipes... did I 
help start that off?

Lots of good ideas (and some others too) have been raised. I thought I
would just weigh in with what I have learned so far.

 (1) Starting with Pete Shiner's creative list and butressed by
     subsequent suggestions, I am more convinced than ever that function
     decorators are actually VERY USEFUL. I'm now strongly +1 on PEP 318
     with SOME syntax.

 (2) I originally objected to "def foo (bar,baz) [qux, quux]:" on
      the grounds that it relied too heavily on punctuation and
      using a keyword ("def foo (bar,baz) as qux, quux") would be 
      better. I think that most of my objections have been addressed:

      * I said "but what would newbies look up", but then Paul Moore
        pointed out "Who, as a new user, saw 'import something as 
        another' and looked up 'as' rather than 'import'?". He's
        right.
      * I said "def marmalade(self) [classmethod]:" versus
        "def marmalade(self): [classmethod]" is confusing, but then


      I think that two objections still stand:

      * "def foo (bar,baz) [qux, quux]:" is certainly not "executable
        pseudocode".
      * This is yet another meaning for "[]" in Python, it is
        certainly not indexing, and it differs subtly from list
        literals an list comprehensions. I suppose this objection
        could be mitigated by declaring that any expression evaluating
        to an iterable could be used (and sane people would use a
        list literal).

      However, there are objections to all other syntaxes that have
      been proposed, and I'm beginning to think that
      "def foo (bar,baz) [qux, quux]:" may be the best of the bunch
      despite these shortcomings.

-- Michael Chermside