[Python-ideas] Adding "+" and "+=" operators to dict

[Thomas Kluyver]

On 12 February 2015 at 11:14, Paul Moore <p.f.moore at gmail.com> wrote:

> (the "new dependency" then would be not supporting Python <3.5 (or
> whatever))
>

I've seen this argument a few times on python-ideas, and I don't understand
it. By this rationale, there's little point ever adding any new feature to
Python, because people who need to support older versions can't use it.

By posting on python-ideas, you're implicitly prepared to take the long
term view - these are ideas that we might be able to really use in a few
years. One day, relying on Python 3.5 or above will be completely
reasonable, and then we can take advantage of the things we're adding to it
now. It's like an investment in code.

> why not create a function, put it on PyPI and collect usage stats

Does anyone seriously believe that people will add a dependency which
contains a single three line function?

Thomas
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