[Python-Dev] API bloat

[exarkun at twistedmatrix.com]

On 01:59 pm, ncoghlan at gmail.com wrote:
>On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 11:03 PM,  <exarkun at twistedmatrix.com> wrote:
>>On 12:43 pm, ncoghlan at gmail.com wrote:
>>>
>>>On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 10:11 PM, Mark Shannon <marks at dcs.gla.ac.uk> 
>>>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>OK, so UnicodeError_xxx is important for codecs, but surely this 
>>>>sort of
>>>>argument could be made for lots of things.
>>>>Don't forget that for each function added to the API,
>>>>all other implementations have to support it forever.
>>>
>>>Other implementations that want to support CPython extensions should
>>>focus their efforts on the limited API defined in PEP 384. That will
>>>not only be a lot easier, it will also be less of a moving target.
>>
>>And will produce what kind of results?  How many extension libraries 
>>work
>>with this subset?
>
>Right now? Very few, given the changes to the way types need to be
>created. But prioritising it will speed convergence over time as more
>extension modules cut over to it for the stable ABI benefits.
>
>And, since the C API has never been anywhere near as tightly
>controlled as the language definition, alternative implementations are
>going to garner more sympathy if they restrict their concerns to the
>growth of the stable ABI rather than worrying about an implementation
>detail of CPython.

Sympathy, perhaps.  But that doesn't mean people will drop everything 
and rewrite their extension modules.

Jean-Paul