[Python-Dev] Re: Call for defense of @decorators

[Anthony Baxter]

Michael McLay wrote:
> On Friday 06 August 2004 11:57 am, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> 
>>>So I spent a little time futzing with python-mode and some of my
>>>decorator code, to try some alternative leading characters.  Of the ones
>>>that cannot be used in valid Python code today (i.e. no backward
>>>compatibility issues), I tried ':', '/', '=', '*', and '|'.
>>
>>If the community can rally behind one of these, I think that would be
>>acceptable.  They all seem arbitrary, but so is the choice of '@'. :-)
> 
> 
> Why was  ';' not on Barry's list? It looks like it could be safely used as a 
> leading character.

One objection is that there's a number of contexts where ; is the
comment notation. Another is, to me, the ';' just looks misplaced.
Maybe it was supposed to be on the end of the line before, but there's
a line break in the wrong place?

I also don't think ; is that much better than : - I think it violates
one of the unwritten bits of Python Zen - Syntax Shall Not Look Like
Grit On Tim's Monitor. <wink>


-- 
Anthony Baxter     <anthony at interlink.com.au>
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.