[Python-Dev] PEP 384 status

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Mon, 30 Aug 2010 07:31:34 +1000
Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> Since part of the point of
> PEP 384 is to support multiple versions of the C runtime in a single
> process, [...]

I think that's quite a maximalist goal. The point of PEP 384 should be
to define a standard API for Python, (hopefully) spanning multiple
versions. Whether the API effectively guarantees a standard ABI can
only depend on whether the system itself hasn't changed its own
conventions (including, for example, function call conventions, or the
binary representation of standard C types).

In other words, PEP 384 should only care to stabilize the ABI as
long as the underlying system doesn't change. It sounds a bit foolish
for us to try to hide potential unstabilities in the underlying
platform. And it's equally foolish to try to forbid people from using
well-known system facilities such as FILE* or (worse) errno.

So, perhaps the C API docs can simply mention the caveat of using FILE*
(and perhaps errno, if there's a problem there as well) for C extensions
under Windows. C extension writers are (usually) consenting adults, for
all.

Regards

Antoine.