[Python-Dev] method decorators (PEP 318)

[Walter Dörwald]

Guido van Rossum sagte:

> [Walter Doerwald]
>> For me '@' looks like something that the compiler shouldn't see.
>
> I don't understand.  Why?  Is that what @ means in other languages? Not
> in JDK 1.5 -- the compiler definitely sees it.

@ has no meaning in current Python and is seldom used in normal text, so
it seems to be perfect for an escape character that is used by a
documentation extractor or preprocessor, i.e. for markup that is somehow
"orthogonal" to the program source. But as part of a normal Python source
it feels like a wart.

>> How about:
>>
>>    def foobar(self, arg):
>>        .author = AuthorInfo(author="GvR", version="1.0",
>                              copyright="GPL", ...)
>>        .deprecated = True
>
> No, I want to reserve the leading dot for attribute assignment to a
> special object specified by a 'with' statement, e.g.
>
>    with self:
>        .foo = [1, 2, 3]
>        .bar(4, .foo)

I know, but inside a function the leading dot could default to function
attribute assigment in the absence of a with statement.

That makes me wonder, what a leading dot should mean at class or module
scope.

Bye,
   Walter Dörwald