[Python-Dev] Changing ob_size to [s]size_t

[Martin v. Löwis]

What terrible things would happen if ob_size would be changed from int
to size_t?

The question recently came up on comp.lang.python, where the poster
noticed that you cannot mmap large files on a 64-bit system where int
is 32 bits; there is a 2Gib limit on the length of objects on his
specific system.

About the only problem I can see is that you could not store negative
numbers anymore. Is ssize_t universally available, or could be used on
systems where it is available?

Regards,
Martin