[Python-Dev] Choosing a best practice solution for Python/extensionmodules

Raymond Hettinger python at rcn.com
Fri Feb 20 21:33:56 CET 2009


[Brett]
> With io getting rewritten as an extension module, I think it's time to try to 
> come up with a good best practice scenario for how to be able to control 
> when  a module uses a pure Python implementation and when it uses 
> extension module optimizations. This is really only important for testing as 
> if the extension is missing then the pure Python version is just flat-out used.

There is also need in some modules where the two are not exactly equivalent
or where there are multiple C extensions to choose from.  In PyYAML, there 
needs to be an easier way to switch parsers and emitters (i.e. LibYAML).
There are similar issues with xmlrpclib with the choice of parsers, marshallers,
and unmarshallers.  Possibly, the same mechanism can offer the user more
control over which dbm is used when there are several choices.


Raymond






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