[Python-Dev] __del__ and tp_dealloc in the IO lib

[Maciej Fijalkowski]

> That would be break so much code that I doubt that, in practice, you can
> slip it through within a release. Besides, being able to write simpler
> code like "for L in open("foo.txt")" is per-se a good reason *not to*
> put file objects in cycles; so you will probably need more than one good
> reason to change this. OK, not *you* because of your BDFL powers ;), but
> anyone else would surely have to face great opposition.

note that this is about *writing* files, not reading. You would be
surprised how much of the software have already taken care to be
cross-platform (ie twisted, django, pylons, ...), not to rely on that
and be able to run on any other python implementation.

>
> The fact that file objects are collected and closed immediately in all
> reasonable use cases (and even in case of exceptions, that you mention,
> things get even better with the new semantic of the except clause) is a
> *good* property of Python. I regularly see people *happy* about it.
>
> I miss to understand why many Python developers are so fierce in trying
> to push the idea of cross-python compatibility (which is something that
> does simply *not* exist in real world for applications) or to warn about
> rainy days in the future when this would stop working in CPython. I
> would strongly prefer that CPython would settle on (= document) using
> reference counting and immediate destruction so that people can stop
> making their everyday code more complex with no benefit. You will be
> losing no more than an open door that nobody has entered in 20 years,
> and people would only benefit from it.

someone said at some point "noone will ever need more than 650k of
RAM". see what has happened.

Cheers,
fijal