Marco, this is no more of a defect than `x*-y` or `a&~b`. It is a binary 
operator followed by an unary operator, just like `x--y`, `x/-y`, 
`x+-y`, `x**-y` etc. Python has at least three unary operators and at 
least 17 binary operators so in total there are 51 possible legal 
combinations of a binary operator followed by an unary operator.

`++` isn't special, it's not unique, or a defect, or a bug.

>     1++
>       ^
> SyntaxError: invalid syntax

As a programmer with more than 10 years experience, you should know that 
this example is a syntax error because you are missing the right hand 
operand, not because `++` has no meaning. You would get precisely the 
same syntax error with `2*` or `2==`.