[Python-Dev] (214) (original) (raw)

Tim Peters tim_one@email.msn.com
Fri, 25 Aug 2000 09:24:40 -0400

[Just van Rossum]

(Just to make sure you guys know; there's currently a thread in c.l.py about the new 2.0 features. Not a single person stood up to defend PEP 214: noone seems to like it.)

But that's not true! I defended it . Alas (or "thank God!", depending on how you look at it), I sent my "In praise of" post to the mailing list and apparently the list->news gateway dropped it on the floor.

It most reminds me of the introduction of class.__private names. Except I don't think anyone was a fan of those besides your brother (I was neutral, but we had a long & quite fun Devil's Advocate debate anyway), and the opposition was far more strident than it's yet gotten on PEP 214. I liked __private names a lot after I used them, and, as I said in my unseen post, having used the new print gimmick several times "for real" now I don't ever want to go back.

The people most opposed seem to be those who worked hard to learn about sys.stdout and exactly why they need a try/finally block <0.9 wink>. Some of the Python-Dev'ers have objected too, but much more quietly -- principled objections always get lost in the noise.

doubting-that-python's-future-hangs-in-the-balance-ly y'rs - tim