[Python-Dev] Re: 2.4a2, and @decorators

[Guido van Rossum]

> 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/)