[Python-Dev] Class decorators

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 02:55 PM 3/29/2006 +1200, Greg Ewing wrote:
>Phillip J. Eby wrote:
>
> > http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-March/043462.html
>
> > Or more precisely, the subsequent discussion and examples convinced me 
> that
> > putting class decorators on top of the class was bad for readability, vs.
> > putting them in the body just after the docstring.
>
>I just looked at that discussion, and I didn't see any
>argument to refute the thesis that if decorators-on-top
>is good enough for functions, it should be good enough
>for classes.
>
>In fact it seems to have been written before the on-top
>decorator syntax existed, so there's no discussion of
>the issue at all.
>
>Seems to me that, since we now already have @-decorators
>for functions, a *very* good reason will be needed for
>requiring a completely different syntax to get exactly
>the same effect for classes.

And here it is: because the use cases for class decorators are 
different.  I routinely use them with things that take numerous keyword 
arguments, but this isn't nearly as common of a scenario for function 
decorators.  Also, class decorators are far more likely to be just 
registering the class with something -- which means they don't deserve so 
prominent a location as to obscure the class itself.

ObDisclaimer: this is my personal experience and opinion.  Others may have 
different use cases in mind.  I'm just pointing out that if @decorator 
support were added for classes, I wouldn't use it, because it's not 
actually an improvement over what I'm doing now.  Function decorators, 
OTOH, *are* an improvement over what I did before, so I use them.