Hi all, since the developers have been kind enough to take ipython's fate into account in the decorator debate, I figured I'd post an additional piece of info. Option E on the Wiki http://www.python.org/moin/PythonDecorators is: E. pie decorator at top of function body syntax def foo(arg1,arg2): @classmethod ... def bar(low,high): @accepts(int,int) @returns(float) ... I just want to mention a couple of things regarding this one, in case it becomes a contender in Guido's mind: 1. It would NOT cause ipython any problems whatsoever. Ipython only special-cases @foo at the beginning of a line, so this would be perfectly OK with ipython. I don't know if Leo would fare equally well with it. 2. I happen to like it quite a bit, since I already consider (because of the special role of docstrings) the top area of a function 'special'. So that area seems to me a reasonable choice for additional meta-information about the function's behavior. I agree decorators are more radical than docstrings, but at least there's a certain conceptual precedent. And it seems to leave the cleanness of the 'def' word which is a nice visible highlight of a function declaration, without causing the deep indentation issues of other proposals. 3. In this kind of setup, using | instead of @ would be ok as well, I guess: def bar(low,high): |accepts(int,int) |returns(float) ... Ok, nobody really wanted my opinion, so feel free to ignore #2/3 :) The main point was #1. Best, f