[Python-Dev] Python keywords (was Lockstep iteration - eureka!)

[Mark Hammond]

[Skip laments...]
> Could this be extended to many/most/all current instances of
> keywords in Python?  As Tim pointed out, Fortran has no
> keywords.  It annoys me that I (for example) can't define
> a method named "print".

Sometimes it is worse than annoying!

In the COM and CORBA worlds, it can be a showstopper - if an external
object happens to expose a method or property named after a Python keyword,
then you simply can not use it!

This has lead to COM support having to check _every_ attribute name it sees
externally, and mangle it if a keyword.

A bigger support exists for .NET.  The .NET framework explicitly dictates
that a compliant language _must_ have a way of overriding its own keywords
when calling external methods (it was either that, or try and dictate a
union of reserved words they can ban)

Eg, C# allows you to surround a keyword with brackets.  ie, I believe
something like:

object.[if]

Would work in C# to provide access to an attribute named "if"

Unfortunately, Python COM is a layer ontop of CPython, and Python .NET
still uses the CPython parser - so in neither of these cases is there a
simple hack I can use to work around it at the parser level.

Needless to say, as this affects the 2 major technologies I work with
currently, I would like an official way to work around Python keywords!

Mark.