[Python-Dev] Dropping support for Win9x in 2.6

[Tim Peters]

[Neal Norwitz]
>> Martin and I were talking about dropping support for older versions of
>> Windows (of the non-NT flavor).  We both thought that it was
>> reasonable to stop supporting Win9x (including WinME) in Python 2.6.
>> I updated PEP 11 to reflect this.

It's OK by me, but I have the same question as Trent:

[Trent Mick]
> Are there specific code areas in mind that would be ripped out for this
> or is this mainly to avoid having to test on and ensure new code is
> compatible with?

Seem unlikely it's the latter, since I'm not sure any Python developer
tests on a pre-NT Windows anymore anyway.  Maybe Raymond is still
running WinME?

About the former, I don't see much potential.  The ugliest 9x-ism is
w9xpopen.exe, but comments in the places it's used say it's needed on
NT too if the user is running command.com.  If so, it stays.

There's a bit of excruciating Win9x-specific code in winsound.c that
could go away, and I suppose we could assume that Unicode filenames
are always supported on Windows.

Maybe best is that if someone reports a Win9x-specific bug against
2.6+, we could close it as Won't-Fix at once instead of letting it sit
around ignored for years :-)