When was feature FOO added to Python? (was: decorators when?)

[Ben Finney]

David C. Ullrich <dullrich at sprynet.com> writes:

> What version added decorators (using the @decorator syntax)?
> 
> (Is there a general way I could have found out the answer myself?)

For standard library features, the documentation for a module
<URL:http://www.python.org/doc/lib/> usually says "(New in 2.4)" or
"(Changed in 2.4)" or the like for features that appeared in a
particular version. I think this is manually done by the
documentation maintainers, though.

For features of the language (like decorators), the language reference
<URL:http://www.python.org/doc/ref/> is the place that *describes* the
features; but I don't see any similar "(New in 2.4)" annotations, so
e.g. <URL:http://www.python.org/doc/ref/function.html> doesn't mention
when the decorator syntax appeared in the language.

Any documentation maintainers reading: Please consider updating the
documents to give this useful "(New in 2.x)" or "(Changed in 2.x)"
annotation for just such a situation.

You can get closer to the answer by browsing the "What's New in
Python" <URL:http://www.python.org/doc/2.4/whatsnew/> documents by
version.