[Python-Dev] PEP 557: Data Classes

[Chris Barker]

I think we've drifted into a new topic, but...


 I was astonished to see them
> implemented using decorators, and I was not the only one.


...


> Python is at a weird point here. At about every new release of Python,
> a new idea shows up that could be easily solved using metaclasses, yet
> every time we hesitate to use them, because of said necessary manual
> intervention for metaclass combination.
>
> So I think we have two options now: We could deprecate metaclasses,
>

I was thinking about this last spring, when I tried to cram all sorts of
python metaprogramming into one 3hr class...

Trying to come up with a an exam[ple for metclasses, I couldn't come up
with anything that couldn't be done more claerly (to me) with a class
decorator.

I also found some commentary on the web (sorry, no links :-( ) indicating
that metacalsses were added before class decorators, and that they really
don't have a compelling use case any more.

Now it seem that not only do they not have a compelling  use case, in some
(many) instances, there are compelling reasons to NOT use them, and rather
use decorators.

So why deprecate them? or at least discourage their use?

The other option would be to simply make metaclasses work properly. We
> would just have to define a way to automatically combine metaclasses.
>

"just"?

Anyway, let's  say that is doable -- would you then be able to do something
with metaclasses that you could not do with decorators? or it in a cleaner,
easier to write or understand way?

There-should-be-one--and-preferably-only-one--obvious-way-to-do-it-ly yours,

-Chris

-- 

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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