[Python-Dev] Re: Re: subprocess - updated popen5 module

[Guido van Rossum]

>    Requiring windows interface modules to be written in C rather than Python
> reduces the number of Python users that can add, modify and fix these
> modules. It also increases the amount of effort involved in working on these
> modules.

I don't know. Writing Windows interface modules is a highly
specialized form of torture, requiring arcane expertise. Most Python
users don't have that expertise, and could do more damage than good.
I'd expect those folks that *do* have the expertise to have learned
what they know by coding in C/C++, so I don't see that requiring the
use of C is any particular burden. Rather, having to be familiar with
the intricate details of the mapping between C and Python is likely to
trip up folks occasionally.

And what about all the stuff that's defined in header files? In the
past, in the Unix world, I experimented with translating .h files to
Python modules to save me from the burden of having to  add large
numbers of symbol definitions to C extensions. (Look for files named
Lib/plat-XXX/regen in the source tree.) One by one, that approach has
proven to be problematic, and nearly all of those have eventually been
turned into systematic lists of symbol definitions in C code. See for
example the posix, socket, fcntl, and signal modules.

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