[Python-ideas] Just __main__

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Mon, 18 Jun 2012 14:09:33 -0600
Andrew McNabb <amcnabb at mcnabbs.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 12:39:05PM -0700, Bruce Leban wrote:
> > 
> > The special value of __name__ and the proposed __main__() function are both
> > a bit magic. However, when I write if __name__ == '__main__' it's at least
> > clear that that if statement *will* be executed. It's just a question of
> > when the condition is true and if I don't know I can find out fairly
> > easily. (As I did the first time I saw it and probably other people on this
> > list did too.) On the other hand, it's not at all obvious that a function
> > named __main__ will be executed automagically.
> 
> Given that C, Java, and numerous other languages automagically execute a
> function called "main", I would argue that a "__main__" function would
> actually be _less_ surprising than "if __name__ == '__main__'" for most
> new Python users.

Yes, a __main__ function would be reasonable, especially now that we
have __main__.py files in packages.

Massimo's suggestion of a decorator, OTOH, sounds useless: how would it
help in any way?

Regards

Antoine.