[Python-Dev] Re: 2.4a2, and @decorators (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Tue Aug 3 18:26:57 CEST 2004

I made the proposal in response to exactly the same instinct that Jim is reflecting here. If people really need a prefix syntax for decorators it would be best to at least start with an implementation that doesn't involve core language changes, because the whole area looks quite perilous from a language design point of view.

We had an implementation without core language changes, but it was a postfix syntax.

A prefix syntax should be designed with future usability in mind exclusively, unconstrained by "implementability without language changes". That's a much more stifling requirement than the requirement that existing code shouldn't be broken (which is stifling enough in itself but IMO unavoidable).

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

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