[Python-ideas] Augmented assignment syntax for objects.

[Chris Angelico]

On Tue, Apr 25, 2017 at 11:08 AM, Erik <python at lucidity.plus.com> wrote:
> The suggestion therefore is:
>
> def __init__(self, foo, bar, baz, spam, ham):
>   self .= foo, bar, baz, spam, ham
>
> This is purely syntactic sugar for the original example:
>
> def __init__(self, foo, bar, baz, spam, ham):
>   self.foo = foo
>   self.bar = bar
>   self.baz = baz
>   self.spam = spam
>   self.ham = ham
>
> ... so if any of the attributes have setters, then they are called as usual.
> It's purely a syntactic shorthand. Any token which is not suitable on the
> RHS of the dot in a standard "obj.attr =" assignment is a syntax error (no
> "self .= 1").

Bikeshedding: Your example looks a lot more like tuple assignment than
multiple assignment. I'd rather it link more with the way that
multiple assignment works:

# simple multiple assignment
a = b = c = d = e = 0
# object member assignment
self .= foo .= bar .= baz .= spam .= ham

The trouble is that this syntax is really only going to be used inside
__init__. It's hard to justify new syntax for one purpose like this.
So I'm swaying between -0 and +0.5 on this.

ChrisA