Newer versions of PyQt have replaced the magic strings with a system that's much more Pythonic, using decorators and OOP. I guess the author just wanted to kee

Newer versions of PyQt have replaced the magic strings with a system that's much more Pythonic, using decorators and OOP. I guess the author just wanted to keep backwards compatibility with old versions (or isn't aware of the change). Edit: If anyone's interested, here's the new syntax: http://pyqt.sourceforge.net/Docs/PyQt4/new_style_signals_slots.html http://pyqt.sourceforge.net/Docs/PyQt4/new_style_signals_slo...