[Python-Dev] Re: def fn (args) [dec,dec]: (original) (raw)

Nicolas Fleury nidoizo at yahoo.com
Fri Aug 6 18:50:27 CEST 2004

Guido van Rossum wrote:

Yes, this whole thing is deeply about readability. It started with the observation that the post-function-body decorator "syntax" had usability / readability issues. A lot of Python is about that.

I agree. In fact, I've been convinced by both sides that both @decorators and list-after-def solutions have major readability drawbacks. For example, this is more readable than both:

decorate classmethod: def foo(arg1,arg2): ...

But it is less usable when the decorator applies to a single function, unless a syntax is allowed to do it without indentation. And there's a new keyword. But adding a special character to avoid adding a new keyword? Wouldn't a "from future import decorate" until Python 2.X or 3 be better? It seems like a good compromise to me...

Regards, Nicolas

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