Tennessee Leeuwenburg wrote:
I'm not sure if this problem I face affects many other people, but I'll
just describe it and see what kind of feedback I get.
I have a suggestion for a new piece of Python syntax when defining
methods. I have seen the following done, and have done it myself
class FanstasticClass:
def __init__(self):
self.someFantasticMethod("Hello")
def someFantasticMethod(self, argument = True):
print argument
justAsFantastic = someFantasticMethod
In order to set up a second method, justAsFantastic, which is just an
alias to someFantasticMethod
This is fairly rare, I believe.
The shortcoming of this approach is that supposing we have some
unfamiliar codebase. In my method I see a call to
someObject.justAsFantastic("Wahoo"). In order to find that method, I do
a file search for "def justAsFantastic(" in order to make sure (a) I
only get method definitions and (b) I don't get any extraneous methods.
The search will also fail if there is other than a single space between
'def' and 'meth_name'.
This is especially relevant to methods which might be commonly used as
variable names elsewhere in the code.
I suggest allowing the following syntax:
def justAsFantastic = someFantasticMethod
which will *do* exactly the same thing, but by a syntactic marker that
the variable justAsFantastic points to a method.
Comments appreciated!
Tack '# def justAsFantastic' on the end of the line and the search will
work.
The the def search also does not work with methods set from outside.
class C:...
def _(s,args): pass
C.somemeth = _
# or setattr(C, 'somemeth', _)
nor would the proposal work with an aliasing decorator
@alias('justAsFantastic')
def someFantasticMethod(args): ...
which some would prefer if doing very many aliases. Better to just
search for 'justAsFantastic'.
tjr
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