[Python-Dev] _PyImport_LoadDynamicModule questions

[Guido van Rossum]

> On AIX, building a shared library for use by extension modules and
> which uses the Python 'C' API is way harder than it should be**; the
> best workaround we could find involves hijacking
> _PyImport_LoadDynamicModule to load the shared library and patch up
> the symbol references.
> 
> _PyImportLoadDynamicModule is undocumented, AFAICT. Am I not
> supposed to touch it? Is it likely to disappear or change its
> signature?

That's anybody's guess.  I have no plans in this area, but it's only
an external symbol because we wanted a logical separation between
importdl.c and import.c.  If someone has a great idea for refactoring
this that involves changing its signature, I don't see why not.

Now, maybe you're right that this *should* be documented and
guaranteed API -- we've promoted internal APIs to that status before
without removing the leading underscore (e.g. _PyString_Resize).

> On a related note, I wonder about all of the _[A-Z] names in
> Python. I know that at least in C++, these names are reserved to the
> compiler implementation. I assume the same holds for 'C', and wonder
> if Python's use of these names is intentional, on the "to be changed
> someday" list, or something else.

They're reserved by standard C too, but I figure we'd be safe by using
_Py as the prefix.  Same thing really as assuming ASCII or 8-bit
bytes -- standard C doesn't guarantee those either.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)