. Python 2.1 function attributes

[Tim Peters]

[Roy Katz]
> My question is this:
>
>    what is the point of letting functions have attributes when
>    the same role is fulfilled cleanly by classes which implement
>    __call__()?

Akin to the same point as for letting people write

    x + 2

when they could be restricted to writing

    x + 1 + 1

That is, convenience, clarity, efficiency and naturalness.  As PEP 228 says,
people *have* been abusing docstrings for all sorts of things, despite that
they're well aware of class-base techniques.  If I want to associate data
(other than a docstring, which is easy) with a function or method, first
burying the function in an artificial singleton class and then using an
instance of that class instead is simply convoluted in comparison.