[Python-Dev] PEP 549: Instance Properties (aka: module properties)

[Guido van Rossum]

On Mon, Sep 11, 2017 at 6:04 PM, Larry Hastings <larry at hastings.org> wrote:

>
>
> On 09/11/2017 08:44 AM, Guido van Rossum wrote:
>
> I worry that in the end @property isn't general enough and the major use
> cases end up still having to use __class__ assignment, and then we'd have a
> fairly useless feature that we cant withdraw, ever.
>
>
> What can I say--I don't have that worry ;-)
>
> As previously mentioned in this thread, I counted up uses of property,
> __getattr__, and __getattribute__ in 3.7/Lib.  I grepped for the following
> strings, ignored pydoc_data/topics.py, and got these totals:
>
> "@property" 375 hits
> "def __getattr__" 28 hits
> "def __getattribute__(" 2 hits
>
> @property seems pretty popular.
>

I saw that the first time but it doesn't address my worry. (I don't feel
like explaining the worry again though, I feel I've done all I can.)


>
> Why is there no mechanism to add new descriptors that can work in this
>> context?
>>
>> I've updated the prototype to add one.  I added it as
>> "collections.abc.InstanceDescriptor"; that's a base class you can
>> inherit from, and then your descriptor will work in a module.  Bikeshedding
>> the name is fine.
>>
>
> I don't understand the question, or the answer. (And finding the prototype
> is taking longer than writing this email.)
>
>
> Ronald was basically asking: what about user classes?  The first revision
> of the prototype didn't provide a way to write your own instance
> descriptors.  The only thing that could be a instance descriptor was
> property.  So, I updated the prototype and added collections.abc.InstanceDescriptor,
> a base class user classes can inherit from that lets them be instance
> descriptors.
>

I still don't follow. How does one use InstanceDescriptor? Is this still
about modules, or is it a generalization of properties for non-module
instances? (If it is specific to modules, why doesn't it have "module" in
its name? Or if it's not, why is it in this discussion?)


> The prototype is linked to from the PEP; for your convenience here's a
> link:
>
> https://github.com/larryhastings/cpython/tree/module-properties
>
> I found that link in the PEP, but it's just a branch of a fork of cpython.
It would be easier to review the prototype as a PR to upstream cpython.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)
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