A counter-proposal to __future__ in PEP 236

[Martin von Loewis]

"Tim Peters" <tim.one at home.com> writes:

> It's not possible-- in Python's parser --to make the identifier
> "directive" a keyword in some contexts but not others

Sure it is; my patch does that. It is even possible to implement the
syntax that Joshua wants to have, it is just not easy.

> You also have to consider the parsers in tools, from the Emacs
> python-mode thru whatever the heck PythonWorks uses.

The Emacs Python mode deals just fine with the proposed syntax as it
is now; i.e. it does not highlite directive (as it might do in some
future release), however, its indentation behaves just fine even in
presence of directive. Once it knows that directive is a keyword
(i.e. by adding it to the kw1 list), it will highlite it in all
contexts (even if used as an identifier) - just as it does for, say,
print.

I don't know whatever the heck PythonWorks uses, so I don't know
whether it would break. My guess is that it would not.

> Doesn't mean it can't be hacked, but it's ugly, and you have to get
> a lot of different people to sign up to do all that hacking.

That's only for the transitional period for introducing the new
keyword; I firmly believe that most tools will continue to work as
much as reasonable, instead of outright breaking, even if they are not
touched at all.

Regards,
Martin