[Python-Dev] Thoughts fresh after EuroPython

[geremy condra]

On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 9:16 PM, Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:
> On Sun, 25 Jul 2010 10:04:57 am Steve Holden wrote:
>> > - After seeing Raymond's talk about monocle (search for it on PyPI)
>> > I am getting excited again about PEP 380 (yield from, return values
>> > from generators). Having read the PEP on the plane back home I
>> > didn't see anything wrong with it, so it could just be accepted in
>> > its current form. Implementation will still have to wait for Python
>> > 3.3 because of the moratorium. (Although I wouldn't mind making an
>> > exception to get it into 3.2.)
>>
>> I can understand the temptation, but hope you can manage to resist
>> it.
>>
>> The downside of allowing such exceptions is that people won't take
>> these pronouncements seriously if they see that a sufficiently
>> desirable goal is a reason for ignoring them. Everyone should be
>> subject to the same rules.
>
>
> I have no opinion on PEP 380 specifically, but surely a *sufficiently*
> desirable goal *should* be a reason for breaking the rules? Obedience
> to some abstract rule just because it is the rule is not a virtue. The
> moratorium is there to advance Python as a whole, and if (a big "if")
> it becomes a hindrance instead, then Guido should make an exception.
>
> I promise that I won't cease taking his pronouncements seriously if he
> does :)

I wasn't for the moratorium in the first place, so take this with a
grain of salt, but ISTM that if you feel this doesn't impact the
moratorium's goals then there's nothing logically inconsistent about
allowing it through. Of course, if you feel like it does and you
decide to let it through anyway, I think it would be worth explaining
really well why exactly that happened.

Geremy Condra