[Python-ideas] Proposal: Moratorium on Python language changes

[Robert Kern]

On 2009-10-22 14:10 PM, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 11:40 AM, Tim Peters<tim.peters at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> [Guido]
>>> I propose a moratorium on language changes. This would be a period of
>>> several years during which no changes to Python's grammar or language
>>> semantics will be accepted.
>>
>> Eh.  I'll be a solid +1 on this /if/ you use your time machine to
>> begin the moratorium right after the "with" statement was introduced.
>> The rationale you gave applied as much then as it does now -- and if
>> you do this, then we won't need to discuss it now, since it will
>> already have been done.
>
> Well, my intention is for it to begin right after 3.1 was released.
> While the time machine can do stuff with SVN or Hg branches, it's not
> powerful enough to mess with code already released.
>
> Though honestly I don't recall exactly what was added between the with
> statement and the 3.1 release apart from 'nonlocal'.

Can you recall, off the top of your head, what language changes would need to be 
rolled back between the trunk and 3.1? I'm basically +1 from the peanut gallery, 
but I'm not really sure what changes have already been committed to the trunk.

>> If you won't use your time machine, fine, +0.9.  I'm taking off a
>> tenth so you realize there's a steep cost for refusing it interfere
>> with history.
>
> Ah, you've moved from fractional winks to fractional votes. A nice upgrade. :-)

It's one of the things I miss about the good old days of c.l.py, actually. :-(

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
  that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
  an underlying truth."
   -- Umberto Eco