[Python-Dev] Windows IO

[David LeBlanc]

It looks as though IO in Python (2.2.1), regardless of platform or device,
happens in Objects/fileobject.c and, in particular, writing occurs in
file_write(...)?

A few questions I hope a lurking (timbot? ;) ) person can answer:

1. Is the above true, or does something different happen when using a
Windows console/commandline?

2. Is there any way to know if a console is being used (that a device is the
console)?

3. What's the purpose of the PC/msvcrtmodule.c file? Does it play any role
in the regular pythonic IO scheme of things?

I'm interested in discovering if the Win32 API for screen reading/writing
can be used so that character color attributes and cursor commands can be
manipulated. It would be nice if those could be used transparently to a
python application so that an application sending (for instance) ANSI color
codes would succede and one that didn't wouldn't care. I realize this is
sort of like curses - is there a Windows version of curses that plays well
with Python and isn't GPL?

TIA,

David LeBlanc
Seattle, WA USA