What about just make a new def-macro for python? A very simple common lisp-implementation would be something like this: (defmacro defmemoize (fn val &body bo

What about just make a new def-macro for python? A very simple common lisp-implementation would be something like this: (defmacro defmemoize (fn val &body body) (with-gensyms (lst hash-code) `(let ((,lst (make-hash-table :test #'equal))) (defun ,fn ,val (let ((,hash-code (list ,@val))) (or (gethash ,hash-code ,lst) (setf (gethash ,hash-code ,lst) ,@body))))))) In which the standard fibonacci-example would be (defmemoize fib (n) (if (<= n 2) ; first two = 1 1 (+ (fib (1- n)) (fib (- n 2))))) Obviously, it would be something more advanced than this, but it shouldn't have to be much more advanced.