[Python-Dev] PEP 3149 thoughts

["Martin v. Löwis"]

>> 1. What is the effect of this PEP on Windows? Is this a Linux-only
>>    feature? If not, who is going to provide the changes for Windows?
>>    (More specifically: if this is indeed meant for Windows, and
>>    if no Windows implementation arrives before 3.2b1, I'd ask that
>>    the changes be rolled back, and integration is deferred until there
>>    is Windows support)
> 
> I don't think Windows support is planned or necessary; after all, isn't the
> default installation mode on Windows to install every Python version into
> its own root direction (C:\PythonXY)?

Yes. People are asking to change that to Program Files\Pythonxy, but
that wouldn't change anything wrt. the PEP.

Notice, however, that the PEP also talks about creating different names
for different compilation options of the same Python binary. This
applies to Windows as well (as the PEP actually points out: there is
_d.pyd and .pyd).

In any case, if the PEP is specific to Unix (or even to Linux?), it
should say so (either as a positive list, or a negative one; if
negative, it should also say whether it applies to OSX).

> That section is talking about files installed by distributions, which need
> to take special steps to get everything into /usr/{lib,share}/pyshared; a
> standard out-of-the-tarball install will not change the way it is installed.
> 
> It may well be that Barry had his Ubuntu hat on a bit too firmly when writing
> that PEP :)

I think then that the PEP should better separate what is actually being
specified (and apparently, that's just the name of the shared objects),
from possible use case scenarios.

Regards,
Martin