[Python-Dev] PEP 318 needs a rewrite

[Greg Ewing]

Guido:

> As a human reader, I like seeing the attributes before the arguments
> because some attributes (like classmethod and staticmethod) affect the
> interpretation of the argument list.

On the other hand, this weakens the syntactic parallels between
function definitions and function calls. Somehow, a def which doesn't
have an open paren immediately after the function name doesn't look
function-definition-ish to me.

With suitable argument naming conventions, the argument list itself
usually gives enough cues to make it clear if it's a classmethod or
staticmethod:

  def foo(self, x, y, z): 
    # self => it's a normal method

  def bar(cls, x, y, z) [classmethod]:
    # cls => it's a class method

  def baz(x, y, z) [staticmethod]:
    # neither self nor cls => it's a static method

Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept, +--------------------------------------+
University of Canterbury,	   | A citizen of NewZealandCorp, a	  |
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greg at cosc.canterbury.ac.nz	   +--------------------------------------+