[Python-Dev] Re: Re: Call for defense of @decorators

[Andrew McGregor]

--On Wednesday, 11 August 2004 9:55 a.m. -0500 Skip Montanaro 
<skip at pobox.com> wrote:

>
>     Andrew> Aren't we really trying to recreate def as a multi-line lambda
>     Andrew> that binds when it's in a context that is not expecting a
>     Andrew> function argument in block form?
>
> I suppose you can look at it that way.  The output of a function
> definition plus any decorator applications to it need not be a function
> though.  I posted a simpleminded example of generating a greyscale ramp
> using a decorator.  If I thought about it for more than a few seconds I
> could probably come up with some other examples as well where the output
> wasn't a function.  Some of them might even be useful. ;-)
>
> Skip
>
>

And that's exactly my point: (relatively) big one-time-use functions can be 
really useful, especially if the function definition is somewhat dependant 
on context.

Andrew