["python","function","coding-style","parameter-passing"]
How can we force naming of parameters when calling a function?

In Python you may have a function definition: def info(obj, spacing=10, collapse=1) which could be called in any of the following ways: info(odbchelper) info(odbchelper, 12) info(odbchelper, collapse=0) info(spacing=15, object=odbchelper) thanks to Python's allowing of any-order arguments, so long as they're named. The problem we're having is as some of our larger functions grow, people might be adding parameters between spacing and collapse, meaning that the wrong values may be going to parameters that aren't named. In addition sometimes it's not always clear as to what needs to go in. How can we force people to name certain parameters - not just a coding standard, but ideally a flag or pydev plugin? So that in the above 4 examples, only the last would pass the check as all the parameters are named.
In Python 3 - Yes, you can specify * in the argument list. From docs: Parameters after “*” or “*identifier” are keyword-only parameters and may only be passed used keyword arguments. >>> def foo(pos, *, forcenamed): ... print(pos, forcenamed) ... >>> foo(pos=10, forcenamed=20) 10 20 >>> foo(10, forcenamed=20) 10 20 >>> foo(10, 20) Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> TypeError: foo() takes exactly 1 positional argument (2 given) This can also be combined with **kwargs: def foo(pos, *, forcenamed, **kwargs): To complete example: def foo(pos, *, forcenamed ): print(pos, forcenamed) foo(pos=10, forcenamed=20) foo(10, forcenamed=20) # basically you always have to give the value! foo(10) output: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/Users/brando/anaconda3/envs/metalearning/lib/python3.9/site-packages/IPython/core/interactiveshell.py", line 3444, in run_code exec(code_obj, self.user_global_ns, self.user_ns) File "<ipython-input-12-ab74191b3e9e>", line 7, in <module> foo(10) TypeError: foo() missing 1 required keyword-only argument: 'forcenamed' So you are forced to always give the value. If you don't call it you don't have to do anything else named argument forced.