[Python-Dev] Distutils using apply

[Guido van Rossum]

> Guido van Rossum wrote:
> >>Could someone please explain why apply() was marked deprecated ?
> > 
> > Becase it's more readable, more efficient, and more flexible to write
> > f(x, y, *t) than apply(f, (x, y) + t).
> 
> True, but it's in wide use out there, so it shouldn't go until
> Python 3 is out the door.

And it won't.  But that doesn't mean we can't add a PendingDeprecation
warning for it.

> BTW, shouldn't these deprecations be listed in e.g PEP 4 ?
> 
> There doesn't seem to be a single place to look for deprecated
> features and APIs (PEP 4 only lists modules).

That's a problem indeed.

> I find it rather troublesome that deprecation seems to be using
> stealth mode of operation in Python development -- discussions
> about it rarely surface until someone complains about a warning
> relating to it. There should be open discussions about whether
> or not to deprecate functionality.

I believe the discussions are open enough (things like this are never
decided at PythonLabs, but always brought out on python-dev).  But
it's easy to miss these discussions, and the records aren't always
clear.

> > Then maybe we should add something like operator.__call__.
> 
> Why remove a common API and reinvent it somewhere else ?

To reflect its demoted status.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)