[Distutils] Access to Python config info

[Fred L. Drake]

John Skaller writes:
 >         1) does the OS support symbolic or hard links?

	import os
	hasattr(os, "link")
	hasattr(os, "symlink")

 >         2) what information is in fstat?
 >         3) does the OS supply big/little endian Unicode files?
 >         4) What operating system is it? [This is a hard question]
 >         5) is os.system available?

	hasattr(os, "system")

 >         6) What is the size of a Python 'integer' 'float'?
 >         7) What is the eol character sequence?

  I thought this was in there, but can't recall where.

 >         8) is there a 'drive' prefix?
 >         9) Can you delete an open file (Yes under Unix, No under NT)
 >         10) Is there a stderr and/or stdlog file
 >         11) Is there a console at all?
 >         12) Is there a compiler available?
 >         13) Is this J or C Python?

	# true for JPython
	sys.platform[:4] == "java"

 > It may be the proper place for the answer is not in sys.config,
 > but in os. But the os module can compute the answers from
 > sys.config.

  For most of this, probably so.  Recall also that Guido & others
recommend "feature tests" to determine the availability of
functionality rather than having a separate flag to indicate
availability.  There are many ways in which this is more reliable and
maintainable, though what we're currently describing as sysconfig
remains pertinant.  I would expect sysconfig to be used mostly by
things like distutils and not by typical programs.  Hence, it would be 
good for os to not import it.


  -Fred

--
Fred L. Drake, Jr.	     <fdrake@acm.org>
Corporation for National Research Initiatives
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