Docorator Disected

[M.E.Farmer]

Hello Ron ,
You have many good explanations already, but I thought that this
__might__ help others.
Like you I was confused by the decorator syntax. till I realized it was
shorthand for ...

def identity(f):
    return f

def foo():
    pass

# this is the 'old way'
foo =  identity(foo)

It just rebinds foo to the return value of the decorator function.
With the new syntax it becomes.

def identity(f):
    return f

@identity
def foo(self):
    pass
This is the same as above but now the function is
passed and rebound behind the scenes.
Also note that decorators don't have to be a nested function, it really
depends on what you are trying to achieve.

hth,
M.E.Farmer