[Python-Dev] Portable and OS-dependent module idea/proposal/brain fart

[Vladimir Marangozov]

Everybody's right in this debate. I have to type a lot to express
objectively my opinion, but better filter my reasoning and just say
the conclusion.

Having in mind:

- what POSIX is
- what an OS is
- that an OS may or may not comply w/ the POSIX standard, and if it doesn't,
  it may do so in a couple of years (Windows 3K and PyOS come to mind ;-)
- that the os module claims portability amongst the different
  OSes, mainly regarding their filesystem & process management services,
  hence it's exposing only a *subset* of the os specific services
- the current state of Python

It would be nice:
- to leave the os module as a common denominator
- to have a "unix" module (which could further incorporate the different
  brands of unix)
- to have the posix module capture the fraction of posix functionality,
  exported from a particular OS specific module, and add the appropriate
  POSIX propaganda in the docs
- to manage to do this, or argue what's wrong with the above
 
-- 
       Vladimir MARANGOZOV          | Vladimir.Marangozov@inrialpes.fr
http://sirac.inrialpes.fr/~marangoz | tel:(+33-4)76615277 fax:76615252