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

Jan Kaliszewski zuo at chopin.edu.pl
Sat Apr 27 17:58:01 CEST 2013


Guido van Rossum wrote:

> we'd like to be able to define methods for the enum values, and the simplest way (for the user) to define methods for the enum values would be to allow def statements, possibly decorated, in the class. But now the implementation has to draw a somewhat murky line between which definitions in the class should be interpreted as enum value definitions, and which should be interpreted as method definitions. If we had access to the syntax used for the definition, this would be simple: assignments define items, def statements define methods. But at run time we only see the final object resulting from the definition, which may not even be callable in the case of certain decorators. I am still     optimistic that we can come up with a rule that works well enough in practice (and the Zen rule to which I was referring was, of course, "practicality beats purity"). 

Maybe only names that do *not* start with underscore should be treated as enum value names; and those starting with underscore could be used e.g. to define methods etc.? Python has a long tradition of treating names differently depending of that feature.

*j  
-- 
Sent from phone...

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