Thoughts about extensions to the Python language

[Tim Rowe]

In article <mailman.984609740.11496.python-list at python.org>, 
jeremy at alum.mit.edu (Jeremy Hylton) wrote:

> Guido did a poll at developers day last week.  The question was: "Is
> Python development moving too fast or at just the right speed?"  (He
> was being dictatorial and didn't even consider votes from the
> more-faster crowd.)
>
> I believe the results were 42 too fast and 50 just right.  I noted
> that two of the more vocal proponents of the too fast camp proceeded
> to suggest new features.  So at least some of the "too fast" people
> probably meant "too fast unless it's a feature I want" :-).

<snip>

The speed of development isn't (directly) the issue. Features that fit 
cleanly and "Pythonically" into the language can come as fast as they 
like as far as I am concerned. I'm not fussed whether they're useful to me 
or not, just as long as they don't louse up the language. The problem is 
when the speed of development is such that misfeatures get shoehorned in 
without time for proper consideration of whether they fit -- the 
monstrosity of "//" springs immediately to mind. If this is not nipped in 
the bud /very/ quickly I predict that Python will be a dinosaur existing 
only for legacy code and programmers within two years. Sad :-(