[Python-Dev] [Python-3000] Stabilizing the C API of 2.6 and 3.0

[M.-A. Lemburg]

On 2008-05-28 14:29, Paul Moore wrote:
> On 28/05/2008, M.-A. Lemburg <mal at egenix.com> wrote:
>> I'm beginning to wonder whether I'm the only one who cares about
>> the Python 2.x branch not getting cluttered up with artifacts caused
>> by a broken forward merge strategy.
> 
> I care, but I struggle to understand the implications and/or what is
> being proposed in many cases.

Thanks, so I'm not the only :-)

> Recent examples are the ABC backports and the current thread (string C
> API). I simply don't follow the issues well enough to comment.
> 
>> How can it be that we allow major C API changes such as the renaming
>> of the PyString APIs to go into the trunk without discussion or
>> a PEP ?
> 
> Christian has raised this a couple of times, but there has been little
> discussion. I suspect that this is because there is not enough clarity
> over the practical consequences. A PEP may help here, but I'm not sure
> how much - it could spark discussion, but would anyone actually end up
> any better informed?

Probably, yes.

The reason is that if you have a PEP, more people are likely to
review it and make comments.

If you start a discussion with a general subject line which then
results in lots of little sub-threads, important aspects of the
discussion are likely to go unnoticed in the noise.

>> We're having lengthy discussions about the addition of single method
>> to an object, but such major changes just go in like that and nobody
>> seems to really care.
> 
> I suspect deadline pressure and burnout are involved here.
> 
> In all honesty, there's been little or no work done on the C API,
> which is just as much in need of review and possible cleanup for 3.0
> as the language. It's as close as makes no difference to too late now
> - does that mean we've lost the chance?

Perhaps, but the C API is certainly not used by as many people
as the Python front-end and changes to the C API also have much
deeper consequences due the API being written in C rather than
Python.

Overall, I don't think there's a lot to cleanup in the C API.
Perhaps remove a few of those '...Ex()' APIs that were introduced
to extend the original APIs and maybe remove or free up a few
type slots that are no longer needed, but that's about it.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
eGenix.com

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