[Python-Dev] Python for Windows CE

[Luke Dunstan]

Hi,

I would like to explore the possibility of submitting patches to allow 
Python to work on Windows CE out of the box. I have a few questions in 
preparation:

1. Is there any reason in principle why patches for Windows CE support would 
be rejected?

2. Should I submit unified diffs or context diffs?

One page says:
    "Context diffs are preferred, so generate the patch using diff -c."
    http://www.python.org/dev/tools/

Another says:
    "We like unified diffs. We grudgingly accept contextual diffs..."
    http://www.python.org/dev/patches/

3. The page http://www.python.org/dev/patches/style/ says that 
platform-specific code should use preprocessor symbols documented for the 
compiler, but existing Python code uses e.g. the invented MS_WIN32 symbol 
instead of the standard _WIN32. Should we create a symbol MS_WINCE for 
consistency or use the more common _WIN32_WCE?

4. The latest existing patch set uses os.name = "ce", and this can be used 
to distinguish Windows CE from other operating systems in Python code. The 
existing patches also set sys.platform = "Pocket PC", but I am not so keen 
on keeping this, mainly because Windows CE is equivalent to Win32 in many 
cases. Any comments?

5. Windows CE lacks some header files that are present on other platforms, 
e.g. <direct.h>. If we ignore the actual declarations in the header for a 
moment, there are a few ways to solve this problem:

(a) The obvious solution is to wrap each #include <direct.h> inside #ifndef 
MS_WINCE...#endif

(b) Instead we could use #ifdef HAVE_DIRECT_H, requiring patches to #define 
HAVE_DIRECT_H for other platforms

(c) The existing patch set uses a simpler solution by creating a (possibly 
empty) direct.h in a Windows CE-specific subdirectory of the Python source 
tree, and adding that directory to the compiler include path. This means 
that the source files probably won't need to be patched and it may help when 
building C extension modules.

Is there any objection to the method (c) of providing missing headers? What 
is the preferred solution?

In later emails I will of course go into more detail about the patches 
required. Any general tips on how to submit good patches are welcome.

Thanks,
Luke Dunstan