[Python-3000] Generic function PEP won't make it in time

[Guido van Rossum]

[Guido]
> >(b) I'm proposing an @abstractmethod, which sets its argument's
> >__isabstractmethod__ attribute and then returns it, otherwise
> >unchanged. Would this be good enough for you, or do you need @abstract
> >to do more? My point is, I could rename mine to @abstract so that it
> >would serve your purpose as well -- but only if it would serve.

On 4/23/07, Phillip J. Eby <pje at telecommunity.com> wrote:
> Assuming that:
>
> 1.  If you call such a function, it will raise some error, like NotImplementedError

That would be up to the author of the function; they would have to
explicitly raise NotImplementedError in the body. The ABC proposal
allows meaningful abstract methods that can be called (only) via
"super"; the use case for this is that the abstract method might be
the one that decides which exception should be thrown (e.g.
__getitem__ and __next__ do this), or perhaps it could provide a
default implementation for certain types. (Potential example of the
latter: Sequence.__getitem__() could raise IndexError when the
argument is an Integer but handle the case where the argument is a
slice instance, assuming there's a suitable factory which could be a
designated class method.)

> 2.  It's a normal function object (i.e., can have its func_code repointed later)

Yes.

> 3.  The __isabstractmethod__ can be set back to False once there is other
> code registered

Yes.

> Then yes, it's perfect.

I guess it falls short. I'll stick with @abstractmethod, which rhymes
with classmethod and staticmethod. You can have @abstract.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)