[Python-Dev] Nonlocal shortcut

[Guido van Rossum]

On Sun, Dec 7, 2008 at 2:45 PM, Amaury Forgeot d'Arc <amauryfa at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Fabio Zadrozny  wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm currently implementing a parser to handle Python 3.0, and one of
>> the points I found conflicting with the grammar specification is the
>> PEP 3104.
>>
>> It says that a shortcut would be added to Python 3.0 so that "nonlocal
>> x = 0" can be written. However, the latest grammar specification
>> (http://docs.python.org/dev/3.0/reference/grammar.html?highlight=full%20grammar)
>> doesn't seem to take that into account... So, can someone enlighten me
>> on what should be the correct treatment for that on a grammar that
>> wants to support Python 3.0?
>
> An issue was already filed about this:
> http://bugs.python.org/issue4199
> It should be ready for inclusion in 3.0.1.

No it should not. It should be put in 3.1.

I strongly object against the addition of features of *any* kind to
3.0.1, no matter whether they were promised or announced in a PEP or
in the docs or on the 8 o'clock news.  This would make 3.0.0 forever a
"loser" release.

(I find the removal of 'cmp' hard to swallow too, but in a sense the
addition of features is worse, as it makes downgrading a risk.
Upgrades, no matter how minimal, always represent risks -- however
downgrading shouldn't represent risks, unless you happen to depend on
a bugfix that wasn't present in the downgrade -- but we're not talking
about a bugfix here no matter how you bend the English language.)

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