elements of decorator syntax suggestions

[Peter Hansen]

Steven Bethard wrote:

> So in summary
> -> yay keywords!
> -> before def or before colon, and 
> -> whatever list notation and indentation floats your boat

Good post, Steven, and I agree with all your own opinions on the
matter as expressed above.

Note one addition item that most of us are glossing over in the
debate for/against the pie (@) syntax.  Order of operation.

@ syntax has reversed order from the list-after-def.  I think
the order should be readily apparent from the syntax, and I
think the list syntax does provide that benefit over the @ syntax.

I think I'd like a "decorate" keyword (or equivalent), *before*
the definition to avoid the problems with obscuration, and a
mandatory list of some kind that clearly shows the order.

Something like, but not necessarily exactly the same as, this:

from __future__ import decoration

     decorate [
         foo,
         bar,
         bletch(spam='baz')
         ]
     def func(): ...

The only problem is that it still has the defect of @ wherein
the decorate doesn't seem to "bind" to the function def very
well, especially if blank lines are allowed etc.

I'm unclear on what I think it best... but then I don't mind
the current approach much at all, where you just stick the
stuff after the entire function block, so who cares about my
opinion? ;-)

-Peter