[Python-Dev] Proposing "Argument Clinic", a new way of specifying arguments to builtins for CPython

[Barry Warsaw]

On Dec 03, 2012, at 02:29 PM, Larry Hastings wrote:

>4) Builtin function arguments are defined in a small DSL; these
>    are expanded to code and data using a custom compile-time
>    preprocessor step.
>
>All the core devs I've asked said "given all that, I'd prefer the
>hairy preprocessor macros".  But by the end of the conversation
>they'd changed their minds to prefer the custom DSL.  Maybe I'll
>make a believer out of you too--read on!

The biggest question with generated code is always the effect on debugging.
How horrible will it be when I have to step through argument parsing to figure
out what's going wrong?

-Barry