[Python-Dev] PEP 384 status

[Nick Coghlan]

On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 7:43 AM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
> 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).

FILE* is very different from the other things you mention. Function
call conventions and binary representations are defined in the C
standard. FILE*, on the other hand, is explicitly called out as an
opaque reference completely under the control of the specific C
runtime implementation.

Since the Linkage section of PEP 384 specifically states the
availability of a generic "python3.dll" that dynamically redirects to
the relevant "python3y.dll" to allow an extension module to run
against any 3.2 or later Python version as a goal of the PEP, I would
say that allowing mixing of C runtimes is definitely one of the PEP's
goals.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia