[Tutor] Difference between decorator and inheritance

[bob gailer]

And now for something completely different...

Decorators are not required to return a function!

I use them to create a dictionary that maps function names to the 
corresponding function object.

This is very useful when associating actions with user-entered commands. 
Example:

def collect(func=None, d={}):
     if not func: return d
     d[func.__name__] = func

@collect
def add(a,b):
     return a+b

# adds item to dictionary d (key = 'add', value = func)
# repeat for other user-command functions
# finally:
cmd_dict = collect() # returns the dictionary
cmd = input('enter a command>')
func = cmd_dict.get(cmd)

-- 
Bob Gailer