[Python-Dev] method decorators (PEP 318)

[Shane Holloway (IEEE)]

I think one important thing to keep in mind is that many decorated 
methods end up being very similar, and hence you would want the syntax 
to allow for compressing them.  For instance, one would want to be able 
to write the following code block:

     class Example(object):
         def foo(self, *args) [
		synchronized(lock),
		attributes(author='SWH', protocol=IMyProtocol),
		myArgumentWireMarshaller,
		]:
             pass # Code goes here
         def bar(self, *args) [
		synchronized(lock),
		attributes(author='SWH', protocol=IMyProtocol),
		myArgumentWireMarshaller,
		]:
             pass # Code goes here
         def baz(self, *args) [
		synchronized(lock),
		attributes(author='SWH', protocol=IMyProtocol),
		myArgumentWireMarshaller,
		]:
             pass # Code goes here

more like:

     class Example(object):
	IMyProtocolMethod = [
		synchronized(lock),
		attributes(author='SWH', protocol=IMyProtocol),
		myArgumentWireMarshaller,
		]

         def foo(self, *args) [methodreturns(float)] + IMyProtocolMethod:
             pass # Code goes here
         def bar(self, *args) [methodreturns(str)] + IMyProtocolMethod:
             pass # Code goes here
         def baz(self, *args) [methodreturns(int)] + IMyProtocolMethod:
             pass # Code goes here

I think that as decorators get used more and more, we will want some way 
to shorthand a long list of common decorators.  Note that I'm not sold 
on the exact syntax, just the need for the shorthand in a maintainable 
system.  After all, copy and paste gets very sticky over time.

Thanks,
-Shane