On Fri, Jun 4, 2021 at 12:29 AM Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> wrote:
In the C API, there is the internal C API which fits with your description. To access it, you have to declare the Py_BUILD_CORE_MODULE macro. It's not usable directly on purpose. It's an user agreement: I know what I am doing, and I know that this API is not supported nor stable.
Hm, but aren't for example all the fields of code objects (co_name, co_argcount, etc.) in the "non-internal" API? Those (and the functions that manipulate code objects) are a prime example of what I'd consider "unstable".
On https://docs.python.org/3/c-api/code.html it already says about the fields "The fields of this type are subject to change at any time." But I think everything else on that page should be considered unstable as well. (And why do we even have PyCode_GetNumFree()?)
Hum, the C API is somehow off-topic, but let me reply anyway ;-) As I explained in my PEP 620, the Python C API never had any design. Things were only exposed because it was easy and technically possible, and it was a convenient way to define a function in one file and uses it from another file. But 30 years later, we identified that exposing some things are causing troubles and we are trying to make the C API more "abstract". Exposing directly all structures is causing a lot of headaches at every new Python 3.x release. Getter and setter functions can handle structure changes, retrieve information from another structure, return an error, etc. This abstractation is needed for users to not have to update their code, and to CPython developers to be able to change things. If possible, I would prefer to make PyThreadState, PyCodeObject and other structures opaque, and only go through getter and setter functions ;-) PyCode_New() is another problem :-/ The PEP 570 first changed it to add a new parameter. It broke Cython and other projects. The change was reverted, and PyCode_NewWithPosOnlyArgs() was added. The lesson is that it's possible to change PyCodeObject without breaking PyCode_New() (which handles the "backward compatibility" for you). Victor -- Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death.