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

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
> Does that really have to be stated?  Isn't this just giving in to the
> silly lawyers?  A reference manual describes the status quo.  How can
> it possibly begin to describe future directions? 

However, the Python reference manual became more than a reference 
manual, as it also talks about what a Python implementation can
and cannot do, e.g. for memory management.

Providing future directions in the reference manual is a good
thing to do if possible as it helps competing implementations
and tool vendors. Clearly, people do make assumptions that a
documented aspect of the language is not going to change, unless
the documentation says that it is likely to change.

Regards,
Martin