[Python-Dev] Re: Decorators: vertical bar syntax

[Fernando Perez]

Guido van Rossum wrote:

> Let's make one thing clear; while decorators may be useful for some to
> experiment with attaching signatures to methods, mainstream Python
> will eventually have optional static typing built in, and it won't use

I am immensely happy to hear this.  I have read your old essay on the topic,
but the long silence on this issue had me wondering whether it had been
completely abandoned.  I can't currently contribute to it, so I don't
complain.  But this is great news.  Would you care to venture even a rough
guess for when this might happen (and no, I'm not a lawyer, so you don't need
a disclaimer in front :)?

>From a scientific computing viewpoint, this is probably the single biggest
stumbling point when using python today.  We have scipy.weave, f2py and even
manually written extension modules, which we all know how to use.  But having
optional static typing for the cases where python's dynamic nature is a cost
with no benefit will be an incredible gain.  Other methods always slow down
the otherwise very fluid feel of using python, so having this as part of the
language will be fantastic.

Best,

f