Python is probably the language that popularized them, if not invented them. They’re saying the team doesn’t like using them.

My take is that other than C++, where it’s reasonable, forbidden language features are a smell for the team not having a healthy understanding of the language

I don’t get this comment. Gnome is not trying to make a walled garden, and Microsoft has taken every chance they get at making walled gardens (Windows phone, windows 8 arm, various proprietary file formats and protocols), they just haven’t been very successful at it.

Here you go

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeltaWing

Or by using gnu style options on potentially bsd tar