class.print method illegal

[Larry Bates]

I just ran into something I've not seen before:

class foo:
def print(self):
...do something...

creates a syntax error. Why can't a class have
a method called "print"? Doesn't seem to be
any way it could be confused with the reserved
print statement, or am I missing something?

Regards,
Larry Bates

[Diez B. Roggisch]

> creates a syntax error. Why can't a class have

a method called "print"? Doesn't seem to be
any way it could be confused with the reserved
print statement, or am I missing something?

Obviously, otherwise python wouldn't complain :)

As methods aren't much different from plain functions, I think we can agree
that a exception rule like "in methods, keywords can be used as names, but
not on normal functions" would be quite confusing.

Now consider this example:

def foo():
pass
foo <function foo at 0x4052287c>

Now what would you expect a
def print():
pass

to do when print is issued alone on the commandline?

print as class method could be referenced as as klass.print of course, but
as I stated above, that would be inconsistent.

Another reason might be that creating a context-relevant re-interpretation
of keywords complicates the parser uneccesarily - with very limited
benefit.
-
Regards,

Diez B. Roggisch