[Python-Dev] Drop OS/2 support?

[Andrew MacIntyre]

Victor Stinner wrote:

> Python contains code specific to OS/2 (eg. see Modules/posixmodule.c). I read 
> in Wikipedia that IBM has discontinued OS/2 support in 2005. Do we still 
> support OS/2 or not?

As was recently discussed, what constitutes "support" varies in perception.

Python's source contains support for it to be built on OS/2, but 
python.org's normal build process doesn't deliver binaries.

OS/2 lives on as eCS.  It is a second tier platform, akin to Cygwin 
(which also has some source level support but is not part of the normal 
python.org release process).

> I'm asking because I'm working on a patch modifying OS2 specific code, but I'm 
> unable to compile nor test my changes. And on IRC we told me that nobody 
> knows/uses OS/2.
 >
> If we support OS/2, we need a buildbot.

Build-bots for first tier platforms (Windows, Linux & OS/X) are useful 
for the python.org developer community.

IMO build-bots for secondary platforms are the more the responsibility 
of that platform's community on the basis of best management of 
python.org resources.

I don't think anyone reasonable would expect patch suppliers to deal 
with second tier platforms - I certainly don't.  It is nice to get 
heads-up messages about issues that might involve such support though, 
and it shouldn't take much searching to find me to enquire.

> My patch: http://bugs.python.org/issue8391 (os.execvpe() doesn't support 
> surrogates in env).

I'll look at it when I get a chance, but I'm not expecting that my input 
should affect your patch and I'm not expecting you to try and deal with 
the issue on OS/2.  The 3.x branch needs quite a bit of work on OS/2 to 
deal with Unicode, as OS/2 was one of the earlier OSes with full 
multiple language support and IBM developed a unique API.  I'm still 
struggling to come to terms with this, partly because I myself don't 
"need" it.

Regards,
Andrew.

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