this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
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Python allows programmers to pass additional arguments to functions via comments. Now armed with this knowledge head out and spread it to all code bases.

Feel free to use the code I wrote in your projects.

Link to the source code: https://github.com/raldone01/python_lessons_py/blob/main/lesson_0_comments.ipynb

Image transcription:

from lib import add

# Go ahead and change the comments.
# See how python uses them as arguments.

result = add()  # 1 2
print(result)
result = add()  # 3 4
print(result)
result = add()  # 3 4 5 20
print(result)

Output:

3
7
32
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[–] [email protected] 45 points 3 days ago (4 children)

This does not actually work, right? Right?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

they have to import a separate library to do this, it's not a part of standard python, and this post is basically just misinformation

[–] [email protected] 52 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

The add() function (that is available in the source code) basically uses some built in debugging tools to find out where in the code the function is called, and then parses the comment from the file and uses it for adding stuff.

I’ve never tried (becuse why would you…) but something similar can probably be built in any interpreted language

It’s not something Python does by design

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

Thanks :) ! Could you tell me what use case/purpose such function can have from a dev perspective?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago

This stuff is normally used for creating human readable error messages. E.g. printing the line of your code that actually set off the exception

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

I'd say nothing that can't be achieved by docstrings.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

This specific use case? To make a meme, mainly ¯\(ツ)

As for the components: Parsing comments have been used for stuff like type hints / formatting / linting, tho generally not at run time (afaik).

The tooling for finding out where something is called from can be used to give a better understanding of where things go wrong when an exception happens or similar, to add to logs.

I would say that in general you don’t need either functionality except for certain edge-usecases

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Thank you ! 😄

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

We actually use method comments for user documentation as well. Only on specific business methods, but it's nice to have a good comment for the dev and a tooltip for the user at the same time.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago