[Python-Dev] New PEP: Using ssize_t as the index type

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Tim Peters wrote:
> Better to use a new gibberish character and deprecate the old one? 
> Otherwise I'm afraid we'll be stuck supporting PY_SIZE_T_CLEAN
> forever, and it's not good to have the meaning of a format string
> depend on the presence or absence of a #define far away in the file.

See my response to Armin also; I'm concerned that writing code that uses
that character will not easily be backwards compatible. What character
would you suggest?

I would not expect that we are stuck with PY_SIZE_T_CLEAN: In P3k,
Py_ssize_t should become the only type to do indexing, at which
point PY_SIZE_T_CLEAN could go.

> That can be done in one gulp via:
> 
>     some_int = Py_SAFE_DOWNCAST(some_value, Py_ssize_t, int);

Thanks, added (I didn't know it existed).

Regards,
Martin