[Python-Dev] Thoughts fresh after EuroPython (original) (raw)

Steven D'Aprano steve at pearwood.info
Sun Jul 25 06:16:36 CEST 2010

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 :)

-- Steven D'Aprano

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list