[Python-Dev] PEP 362 Third Revision

[Nick Coghlan]

On Fri, Jun 15, 2012 at 1:20 PM, Benjamin Peterson <benjamin at python.org> wrote:
> 2012/6/14 Larry Hastings <larry at hastings.org>:
>> Also, it's more granular than that.  For example, Python now understands
>> symbolic links on Windows--but only haphazardly at best.  The
>> "follow_symlinks" argument works on Windows for os.stat() but not for
>> os.chmod().
>
> Then indeed it's more granular than a parameter being "implemented" or
> not. A parameter may have a more restricted or extended meaning on
> different operating systems. (sendfile() on files for example).

I agree with Benjamin here: I'd like to leave the flag out for now. I
can see there could be a legitimate use case for something *like*
that, but:

1. Context-specific function annotations may be a better answer
2. Context-specific "info" containers (such as sys.flags,
sys.int_info, sys.float_info, time.get_clock_info) may be a better
answer
3. A multi-valued attribute or an arbitrary string attribute
(parameter docstrings, anyone?) may be a better answer

There's no need to enshrine a flag for a currently ill-defined concept
in the initial version of the API. If it still seems like a good idea
by the time 3.4 rolls around, then we can add it than as a new
attribute on inspect.Parameter objects

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia