PEP 318: Can't we all just get along?

[Michael J. Fromberger]

In article <mailman.1909.1092869465.5135.python-list at python.org>,
 Paul Morrow <pm_mon at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Michael J. Fromberger wrote:
> >>
> >>     def foo(cls, a, b): pass
> >>
> >>...I bet the majority would correctly guess "class".
> > 
> > Well, given just that definition, the guess would be incorrect.  The 
> > current release of Python would also require:
> > 
> >    def foo(cls, a, b): pass  # As defined above
> >    foo = classmethod(foo)
> 
> Actually, it illustrates the importance of proof-reading a post 
> before posting it, which I didn't (sorry).

Understood, no worries.  

> I should've also stated that the Python developers would be told that 
> this is a special version of Python that automatically determines the 
> type (static|class|instance) of a method.  In that light, do you see 
> how effective the visual convention can be?

Oh, I see it just fine -- but I still disagree with the idea of 
including any such implicit magic in the language.  

In fact, I don't like some of the magic that is already there -- such 
as, for instance, the automatic mangling of class members whose names 
begin with a double underscore to get "private" semantics.  But that, at 
least, is easy to avoid, if one doesn't want to use it.

>    * If method's first param is 'self', it's an instance method.
>    * If method's first param is 'cls' or 'klass', it's a class method.
>    * All other methods are static methods.

Uck.  -1 from me.

-M

-- 
Michael J. Fromberger             | Lecturer, Dept. of Computer Science
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sting/  | Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA