[Python-Dev] PEP 224 (Attribute Docstrings)

[Guido van Rossum]

Marc-Andre:
> I can take over the coercion PEP: I've been working
> on this before (see the proposal on my Python Pages).

Thanks, excellent (although I haven't seen your proposal yet).

> I would also like to know whether the PEP-0224 will be considered
> for 2.1 if I update the patch to make it a little more robust
> w/r to the problems mentioned in that PEP -- I'd really like
> to see this in Python soon, since it makes documenting Python
> programs so much easier.

I "kinda" like the idea of having attribute docstrings (meaning it's
not of great importance to me) but there are two things I don't like
in your current proposal:

1. The syntax you propose is too ambiguous: as you say, stand-alone
   string literal are used for other purposes and could suddenly
   become attribute docstrings.

2. I don't like the access method either (__doc_<attrname>__).

> Note that I won't get around to do much work on these before
> January... way too busy at the moment :-/

That's a problem -- we really want to have the PEPs ready for review
by mid December.  This will also be a problem for the coercion PEP --
if you think you won't be able to work on it before then, I'd prefer
to find another (co-)author.

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