PEP 359: The "make" Statement

[Steven Bethard]

Steven Bethard wrote:
> Tim Hochberg wrote:
>> Steven Bethard wrote:
>>> Steven Bethard wrote:
>>>> Duncan Booth wrote:
>>>>> make Element html:
>>>>>    make Element body:
>>>>>        make Element p:
>>>>>            text('But this ')
>>>>>            make Element strong:
>>>>>                 text('could')
>>>>>            text(' be made to work')
>>>>
>>>> This is nice.  I'll have to play around with it a bit to see how 
>>>> hard it would be to make it work.
>>>
>>> Okay, I think it'll work[1].  I'm going to update this section to 
>>> something more like:
>>>
>>>
>>> Open Issues
>>> ===========
>>>
>>> ...
>>>
>>> Should users of the make statement be able to determine in which dict
>>> object the code is executed?  This would allow the make statement to
>>> be used in situations where a normal dict object would not suffice,
>>> e.g. if order and repeated names must be allowed. Allowing this sort
>>> of customization could allow XML to be written like::
>>
>> I think this PEP is going off the rails. It's primary virtue was that 
>> it was a simpler, clearer way to write:
>>
>>     class Foo(args):
>>        __metaclass__ = some_metaclass
>>        #...
>>
>> Once it starts calling secret magic methods behind the scenes it's 
>> losing that virture. And for what? Supporting some use cases that have 
>> reasonable solutions already?
> 
> That's why it's in the Open Issues section.  I expect most of these open 
> issues to be resolved by rejection.  (At least, that's my preferred 
> resolution.)  But since they people have brought them up, I think they 
> need to be addressed as completely as possible.
> 
> But I think you make a good point that this particular case can be just 
> as easily done using a with-statement (I think).  I'll add that to this 
> part of the PEP (once I'm sure it works).

Hmm...  Actually, while the with-statement can probably help out with 
the nesting, it doesn't help out with the DRY; you still have to repeat 
the element name (once for the call to Element, and once as the name 
that Element object is bound to).

STeVe