[Python-Dev] Re: def fn (args) [dec,dec]:

[Jeremy Hylton]

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 07:45:51 -0700, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
> [Anthony]
> > I'm having trouble finding a single piece from you where you
> > outline the problems you have with the [decorators] after args,
> > before :. Could you possibly post a message to python-dev
> > stating your problems with it? It's the major one I've been
> > unable to find your objections to.
> 
> And nobody else has expressed their objections to it either? :-)

I thought it was obvious that this option was not acceptable.
 
> (If I could design a language from scratch, I might want to move
> docstrings to before the 'def' as well; I've come to appreciate this
> in Java code.  Fredrik Lundh's PythonDoc also uses comments prefixing
> the method definition; he also uses @ so he should be happy with this
> syntax, as he seemed to be when I mentioned it to him at EuroPython.)

It's not at all clear that Fredrik likes it, but he doesn't
participate in Python development any more so we may never know :-(. 
>From his blog:

> ...so someone I've never heard of added a major syntactic feature to Python 2.4,
> using a syntax that Guido doesn't really like. sorry, guys, but I liked Python better
> when the core language was controlled by a single designer with a strong intuition.
> the current design-by-arguing-until-nobody-cares-anymore-committee just don't
> understand what made Python's design so damn good (as the "[new syntax] is no
> worse than [existing operator] meaning [something when used with a given type]"
> comment clearly shows). sigh. good thing nobody can force me to use decorators (or
> update to 2.4, for that matter). time to finish my own interpreter, perhaps. or at least
> start using a fresh one.

Jeremy