Overloadable Assignment PEP

[Drew Moore]

Erik Max Francis <max at alcyone.com> wrote in message news:<3E8CF4B5.1E221DD7 at alcyone.com>...
> Bengt Richter wrote:
> 
> > So how do you feel about properties? Seems like the OP's proposal
> > would
> > open up another way to implement at least the assignment part. Perhaps
> > there should be an analogous __getvalue__ method for the right hand
> > side.
> > (Already ducking ;-)

I had the same thought..

> 
> I really should have said "rebinding" instead of "rebinding/attribute
> assignment."  I misspoke, sorry.
> 
> I know
> 
> 	something = somethingElse
> 
> is always going to mean rebinding, and I like that..

Can we follow up on this a little?
I'm trying to understand this concern in more detail..

I'd like this PEP to go one of two ways..
either implementation,
or a good solid technical reason why its a bad idea.

so far, the response seems to be:
"it is technically possible, but my scripts might
run slower.. and it just makes me nervous."

I suspect there is some basis for this nervousness, but
I still haven't seen an example of how this proposed feature
would break things.

since no current code uses __assign__,
nothing would break immediately.

however, once it started to be used.. what would go wrong??

nothing?   ## in your dreams, kiddo
all hell would break loose? ## far more likely.

What are use cases when
something = somethingElse

with overloadable assignment

will give real problems in a real-world code example?

would help() immediately break?
would inspect immediately break?
would pydoc immediately break?

I'm an electrical engineer..
I have never won any popularity
contests with my programming skills (or lack thereof)...

still,
I'd like to see this PEP die for a good technical reason.
help me out here!!

Drew