[Python-ideas] Fwd: Define a method or function attributeoutsideof a class with the dot operator
Steven D'Aprano
steve at pearwood.info
Mon Feb 13 19:26:12 EST 2017
On Mon, Feb 13, 2017 at 02:32:33PM -0500, Joseph Hackman wrote:
> Generally speaking, I'm +1 on this idea, I think it would make code
> more readable, especially for tools like IDEs.
>
> I just wanted to ask: can someone point me to the reason Python
> doesn't support referencing a class inside it's own definition? It
> seems like that would solve some of the cases discussed here, and with
> Type hinting that seems like something that maybe should be
> considered?
The simple answer is: since the class doesn't exist yet, you cannot
refer to it. The class name is just a regular name:
py> MyClass = 'something else'
py> class MyClass:
... print(MyClass)
...
something else
so the interpreter would need to provide some special-cased magic inside
the class body to make it work as you expect. That may be a good idea,
but it is a separate issue from this.
--
Steve
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