Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Aug 23)

[Anthony Baxter]

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 20:08:07 GMT, Peter Otten <python-url at phaseit.net> wrote:
>     Thanks to the work of Michael Sparks building on previous efforts
>     by Mark Russell there is already a patch. Anthony Baxter, the
>     outspoken proponent of the pie syntax, helps with some useful hints,
>     too.
>         http://www.python.org/sf/1013835

... just to correct the record - my efforts here have not been
primarily aimed at defending the pie-syntax, but instead aimed at
shaking out a decent response. I'm trying _very_ hard to make sure
that any efforts to go back to Guido are "done right". After the
horror of the ternary operators debacle, I'm trying to make sure that
community involvement doesn't end up with a complete bum rap.

As part of this, of course, I _have_ defended the pie-syntax, because
it's the best I've seen so far. But if something better comes along,
I'm happy to go with that.

My major problems, btw, remaining with the J2 syntax are the choice of
the new keyword seems an extremely problematic thing, and the simple
case of a single decorator results in far more clutter. But these are
purely subjective judgements. (Hell, this entire discussion is now
pretty much based on subjective or aesthetic judgements).