__metaclass__ and __author__ are already decorators

[Tor Iver Wilhelmsen]

Leif K-Brooks <eurleif at ecritters.biz> writes:

> Which is, like I said, assigning new meaning to an old syntax. That
> seems confusing to me; why not just create a new syntax?

One could argue for the other way around as well: __metaclass__ et al
are class variables assigned special meaning. If new syntax for
decorators is important, why introduce the __metaclass__ "decorator"
before the new syntax is present?