PEP318

[ajsiegel at optonline.net]

Arthur wrote:
>> And either intuitively, or consciously, he is doing something that
>> offsets it from something truly intergrated into the core of the
>> language.  By breakling all of his own rules.

>But it *isn't* part of the core language. I think that's the whole 
>point. @decorator does something that no other statement in Python does, 
>so why should it *look* like a normal statement? Or are you suggesting 
>that a keyword should be used instead of a symbol?

>I must not understand your argument.

I'm not making an argument. I'm speculating.

The design goals of PEP318 include:

"""
make it obvious what is happening; at the very least it should be obvious that new users can safely ignore it when writing their own code 
"""

I'm supportive (I guess) of that design goal, but I guess I am speculating that
the actual decision as to the syntax might have been different had this not
have been among the design goals. And that a lot of the discussion regarding the syntax seems to not take consideration of this particular design goal and how it might have impacted Gudio's decision.

Art