Hello!
Summary:
It looks like fixing the Python C API is a lot of work and might fail, so I was wondering if it would be better to put effort into reducing the C API by making more use of CFFI within the Python standard library instead?
Motivation:
It feels like the C API is currently very broad because it provides a second interface layer to a large chunk of the Python object space (in addition to the one visible to Python code).
I think it was Armin Rigo's observation when writing CFFI that there is a better API that already exists -- i.e. C types and function signatures.
If we're going to do a lot of work, would it not be better to push instead for moving towards CFFI as the interface between C and Python?
I'm not sure that this is orthogonal to Victor's current proposal or not -- it might just be one route to achieving it.
Advantages over the current route:
There's a clearer direction for people to head it, so it's easier to contribute.
A lot of work has already been done (e.g. it works for PyPy, a lot of libraries already exist that use it).
Maybe Cython is an equally good option to CFFI in this scenario -- I don't know Cython though, so I have no deep opinion on that.
Schiavo Simon