[Python-Dev] PEP 435 -- Adding an Enum type to the Python standard library

R. David Murray rdmurray at bitdance.com
Tue Apr 23 17:56:16 CEST 2013


On Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:44:21 -0700, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 8:31 AM, R. David Murray <rdmurray at bitdance.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:11:06 -0700, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
> >> I gotta say, I'm with Antoine here. It's pretty natural (also coming
> >> from other languages) to assume that the class used to define the
> >> enums is also the type of the enum values. Certainly this is how it
> >> works in Java and C++, and I would say it's the same in Pascal and
> >> probably most other languages.
> >
> > Well, I guess I can wrap my head around it :)  An Enum is an odd duck
> > anyway, which I suppose is one of the things that makes it worth adding.
> 
> Sorry, you're being to literary/poetic. I can't tell what you meant by
> this response.

I was alluding to the fact that in Python we usually work with instances
of classes (not always, I know, but still...), but with Enum we are
really using the class as a first level object.  Given that, breaking my
(questionable?) intuition about isinstance should not be unexpected.
And by that last phrase I meant to refer to the fact that getting this
right is obviously non-trivial, which is one of the things that makes
it worth adding as a Python feature.

--David


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