[New-bugs-announce] [issue45082] ctypes: Deprecate c_buffer() alias to create_string_buffer()

[STINNER Victor]

New submission from STINNER Victor <vstinner at python.org>:

Since the ctypes module was added to the stdlib (commit babddfca758abe34ff12023f63b18d745fae7ca9 in 2006), ctypes.c_buffer() was an alias to ctypes.create_string_buffer(). The implementation contains a commented deprecation:

def c_buffer(init, size=None):
##    "deprecated, use create_string_buffer instead"
##    import warnings
##    warnings.warn("c_buffer is deprecated, use create_string_buffer instead",
##                  DeprecationWarning, stacklevel=2)
    return create_string_buffer(init, size)

I propose to start to deprecate ctypes.c_buffer(): use ctypes.create_string_buffer() directly.

In older ctypes version, the function was called c_string(): it's still mentioned in the ctypes documentation. This legacy is confusion, and it's time to simplify the API to provide a single function.

----------
components: ctypes
messages: 400871
nosy: vstinner
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: ctypes: Deprecate c_buffer() alias to create_string_buffer()
versions: Python 3.11

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue45082>
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