Metaclasses?

[Michael Hudson]

Robb Shecter <shecter at darmstadt.gmd.de> writes:

> I read an old post about metaclasses (included on the cd-rom with
> the book "Mit Python programmieren"), and got very interested,
> because I imagine that by making a new metaclass, I could maybe fix
> the one thing about Python that annoys me: the obligatory use of
> "self" in method declarations and variable access.  (Python's syntax
> is so clean and neat in all other areas, I feel like it's a shame
> that there's excess verbosity in this one place.)

a) No, metaclasses are unlikely to "help".
b) How, when you've "fixed" Python do you propose, in method bodies,
   to distinguish between local and instance variables?  I might drop
   my longstanding habit of complaining about people complaining about
   the necessity of "self" if you can answer this question...

> So - are metaclasses just a random idea, or is there something in
> the works?

Metaclasses are real, but have this tendency to make one's head
explode...

Cheers,
M.

-- 
  If i don't understand lisp,  it would be wise to not bray about
  how lisp is stupid or otherwise criticize, because my stupidity 
  would be archived and open for all in the know to see.
                                               -- Xah, comp.lang.lisp