[Python-Dev] PEP 447 (type.__getdescriptor__)

[Ronald Oussoren]

> On 24 Jul 2015, at 17:29, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On 25 July 2015 at 00:50, Brett Cannon <brett at python.org> wrote:
>> Leave the decorator out like __new__, otherwise people are bound to forget
>> it and have a hard time debugging why their code doesn't work.
> 
> I'd actually advocate for keeping this as a metaclass method, rather
> than making it available to any type instance. The key thing to
> consider for me is "What additional power does making it a method on
> the class itself grant to mixin types?”

To be honest, I hadn’t considered mixin types yet. 

> 
> With PEP 487, the __init_subclass__ proposal only grants mixins the
> power to implicitly run additional code when new subclasses are
> defined. They have no additional ability to influence the behaviour of
> the specific class adding the mixin into the inheritance hierarchy.
> 
> With PEP 447, as currently written, a mixin that wants to alter how
> descriptors are looked up will be able to do so implicitly as long as
> there are no other custom metaclasses in the picture. As soon as there
> are *two* custom metaclasses involved, you'll get an error at
> definition time and have to sort out how you want the metaclass
> inheritance to work and have a chance to notice if there are two
> competing __getdescriptor__ implementations.
> 
> However, if __getdescriptor__ moves to being a class method on object
> rather than an instance method on type, then you'll lose that
> assistance from the metaclass checker - if you have two classes in
> your MRO with mutually incompatible __getdescriptor__ implementations,
> you're likely to be in for a world of pain as you try to figure out
> the source of any related bugs.

That’s a good point, and something that will move something that I’ve 
wanted to look into forward on my list: the difference between a
classmethod and a method on the class defined through a metaclass.

The semantics I’d like to have is that __getdescriptor__ is a local decision,
defining __getdescriptor__ for a class should only affect that class and its
subclass, and shouldn’t affect how superclasses are handled by __getattribute__.
That is something that can be done by defining __getdescriptor__ on a metaclass,
and AFAIK requires active cooperation when using a @classmethod.

It should be possible to demonstrate the differences in a pure Python
prototype. 

Ronald

> 
> Cheers,
> Nick.
> 
> -- 
> Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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