[Python-Dev] Handling of sys.args (Re: User's complaints)

[Nick Coghlan]

Greg Ewing wrote:
> Maybe sys needs to be split into two modules, with
> the non-sensitive one pre-imported (so that the
> importless interpreter you suggest wouldn't be
> unnecessarily crippled).

Maybe not splitting it, but providing a read-only mechanism of getting at 
certain elements, with "import sys" still being the way of *modifying* any of 
these things.

Relatively safe items (could be provided as attributes and methods of a 
read-only class instance in builtins instead of as a module):

   argv (as a tuple instead of a list)
   byteorder
   maxint
   maxunicode
   builtin_module_names
   copyright
   exc_info()
   exec_prefix
   executable
   exit([arg])
   getdefaultencoding()
   getfilesystemencoding()
   getwindowsversion()
   hexversion
   platform
   prefix
   stdin
   stdout
   stderr
   version
   version_info
   winver


Arguably privileged information (no real reason for non-privileged code to 
know this stuff):
   subversion
   getcheckinterval()
   getdlopenflags()
   dllhandle
   _current_frames()
   getrefcount(object)
   getrecursionlimit()
   _getframe([depth])
   __displayhook__
   __excepthook__
   __stdin__
   __stdout__
   __stderr__
   api_version
   warnoptions
   tracebacklimit
   displayhook(value)
   excepthook(type, value, traceback)
   ps1
   ps2


Definitely privileged operations:
   Actually *setting* any of the above to something different
   modules
   path
   exc_clear()
   setcheckinterval(interval)
   setdefaultencoding(name)
   setdlopenflags(n)
   setprofile(profilefunc)
   setrecursionlimit(limit)
   settrace(tracefunc)
   settscdump(on_flag)

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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