idioms for abstract base classes

[Ben Wolfson]

In article <mailman.987183619.7370.python-list at python.org>, "Carlos
Ribeiro" <cribeiro at mail.inet.com.br> wrote:

> In Delphi, there is a "abstract" keyword that can be used as syntactic
> sugar as in the example below:
> 
> class B:
>    def __init__(self): abstract
>    def dosomething(self): abstract
> 
> ...where "abstract" will raise a "abstract method exception". Do anyone
> smells a PEP here <wink>?

You can already do:

class B:
   def __init__(self): raise NotImplementedError
   def dosomething(self): raise NotImplementedError

or even:

def _abstract(): raise NotImplementedError
class B:
   def __init__(self): _abstract()

-- 
Barnabas T. Rumjuggler
Betty Botter bought an ice-cream sandwich.  "But",
said she, "This ice-cream sandwich's messy!  If I
put it in my pocket, it will make my pocket messy!"