[Python-Dev] Re: Dropping decorator syntax for 2.4?

[Nicolas Fleury]

Raymond Hettinger wrote:
> -1
> 
> To mark a new feature as experimental is essentially deprecating it
> before it ever gets started.  It is a strong discouragement from writing
> any programs that use the feature.  Even so, some people will use it and
> there will be pressure to keep it even if the syntax turns out to be a
> loser.

I agree with you.  However, there's a difference between a deprecated 
feature and an experimental one.  You might not have any easy workaround 
for an experimental feature, which you usually have for a deprecated 
one.  Maybe some developers prefer to have a "deprecated-experimental" 
way to do something than no way at all and afford the cost of changing 
everything in a next release.  This __experimental__ would also only 
make sense for features that *will* be present in future but might be in 
a different form.  That way, there's no strong discouragement from 
writing any program using that feature, but rather a strong warning that 
is might (and even should) change in a next release.

It is true that not a lot features would fall in that category and I'm 
not advocating that decorators is.

Regards,
Nicolas