Registering Plugins With Decorators

I think I’ve missed something already explained. I wanted to ask about the different form of decorator here. Why does it not have include the inside wrapper function?

And now I’m wondering why we can’t do similar to the above all the time.

e.g.

Why can’t a decorator from before, such as:

def slow_down(func):
    """ Delay for 1 second """
    def wrapper_slow_down_one():
        time.sleep(1)
        return func()
    return wrapper_slow_down_one

not instead just be:

def slow_down(func):
    """ Delay for 1 second """
    time.sleep(1)
    return func

Hi Sam,

the different pattern used here for @register can be used when your decorator only needs to do something when the decorated function is defined, in this case it’s registered to a dictionary.

Since we’re not changing the function that has been passed in, that function will work exactly as if it had not been decorated. In the usual pattern, the decorated function is instead replaced by the inner wrapper function.

If you use your simplified @slow_down decorator, you will notice that the code sleeps for 1 second whenever you define a new decorated function, but it will not sleep when you call that decorated function.

Oh of course. Seems obvious now you say it. Ok, thank you.