Are decorators really that different from metaclasses...

[Jeff Epler]

In your proposed model, what does the following code do?
    def f():
        __var__ = 3
        return __var__
    f.__var__ += 1
    print f()

What about any of the following:
    def g():
        if True:
            __var__ = 4
    print g.__var__

    x = 3
    def h(x):
        __var__ = x*x
        return x*x
    print h(2), h.__var__

    def j(cls):
        def __radd__(self, other):
            return self.__add__(other)
        cls.__radd__ = __radd__

    def k(x):
        __created__ = Date(1, 1, 2004)
        __expires__ = __created__ + Interval("1 year")

    def l(x):
        __now__ = time.time()
        return __now__
    print l.__now__, l()

    x = 3
    def m():
        __x__ = x
        return __x__
    x = 4
    print m(), m.__x__

    def n(f, a):
        __doc__ = gettext.gettext(f.__doc__)
        __author__ = a.replace("@", " AT ").replace(".", " DOT ")
        l = locals()
        del l['f'], l['d'], l['a'], l['l']
        f.__dict__.__update__(l)

    def p():
        import os as __os__

    def q(): # BUG x doesn't get the proper metaclass in 2.3!
        class __metaclass__(type): pass
        class x: pass
        # assert x's metaclass is __metaclass__

I gave it a few minutes thought, and I can't figure out a simple rule
that would *not* break code that happened to use __name__s as function
locals (since this has been allowed in all the ten years I've written
Python programs), would not add a new level of name lookup (lookup of
unqualified name on function object), would not introduce confusion
about when lines of code *in the function body* would be evaluated,
would not require that assignment statements be treated differently from
"def", "class", and "__import__" statements, etc, etc.

If you clear some or all of these things up, and turn it into a complete
proposal, wake me up.

Jeff
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