- The formatting operations described here are obsolete and may go away in future
- versions of Python. Use the new :ref:`string-formatting` in new code.
+ The formatting operations described here are modelled on C's printf()
+ syntax. They only support formatting of certain builtin types. The
+ use of a binary operator means that care may be needed in order to
+ format tuples and dictionaries correctly. As the new
+ :ref:`string-formatting` syntax is more flexible and handles tuples and
+ dictionaries naturally, it is recommended for new code. However, there
+ are no current plans to deprecate printf-style formatting.

Please consider just deleting the last sentence. Documentation is meant for users (often new users) and not core devs. As such, I just don't see what it adds. If the aim to to document this intent somewhere, a PEP would be a better place than the formal documentation.

Eli