[Python-Dev] PEP 351

[Noam Raphael]

Hello,

I just wanted to say this: you can reject PEP 351, please don't reject
the idea of frozen objects completely. I'm working on an idea similar
to that of the PEP, and I think that it can be done elegantly, without
the concrete problems that Raymond pointed. I didn't work on it in the
last few weeks, because of my job, but I hope to come back to it soon
and post a PEP and a reference implementation in CPython.

My quick responses, mostly to try to convince that I know a bit about
what I'm talking about:

First about the last point: I suggest that the function will be named
frozen(x), which suggests that nothing happens to x, you only get a
"frozen x". I suggest that this operation won't be called "freezing
x", but "making a frozen copy of x".

Now, along with the original order. Frozen dicts - if you want, you
can decide that dicts aren't frozenable, and that's ok. But if you do
want to make frozen copies of dicts, it isn't really such a problem -
it's similar to hashing a tuple, which requires recursive hashing of
all its elements; for making a frozen copy of a dict, you make a
frozen copy of all its values.

Treating all containers polymorphically - I don't suggest that. In my
suggestion, you may have frozen lists, frozen tuples (which are normal
tuples with frozen elements), frozen sets and frozen dicts.

Treating tuples as frozen lists - I don't suggest to do that. But if
my suggestion is accepted, there would be no need for tuples - frozen
lists would be just as useful.

And about the other concerns:

> More important than all of the above is the thought that auto-freezing is
> like a bad C macro, it makes too much implicit and hides too much -- the
> supported methods change, there is a issue keeping in sync with the
> non-frozen original, etc.
>
> In my experience with frozensets, I've learned that freezing is not an
> incidental downstream effect; instead, it is an intentional, essential part
> of the design and needs to be explicit.

I think these concerns can only be judged given a real suggestion,
along with an implementation. I have already implemented most of my
idea in CPython, and I think it's elegant and doesn't cause problems.
Of course, I may not be objective about the subject, but I only ask to
wait for the real suggestion before dropping it down.

To summarize, I see the faults in PEP 351. I think that another,
fairly similar idea might be a good one.

Have a good week,
Noam