[Python-Dev] an alternative to embedding policy in PEP 418

[Cameron Simpson]

On 06Apr2012 17:30, Glenn Linderman <v+python at g.nevcal.com> wrote:
| On 4/6/2012 4:11 PM, Cameron Simpson wrote:
| > Another alternative is the public lists-of-clocks.
| 
| After watching this thread with amusement and frustration, amusement 
| because it is so big, and so many people have so many different 
| opinions, frustration, because it seems that few of the clocks that are 
| available are anywhere near ideal for any particular stated 
| characteristic,

My partner has occasionally opined that most Prolog programs simply
result in "*** NO ***". We could optimise for that and simplify the
implementation enormously. It would also let us provide very strong
guarrentees about the offered clocks on the basis that no suitable clock
would ever provided:-)

| and because none of the APIs presented provide a way for 
| the user to specify the details of the characteristics of the desired 
| clock, I think this idea of a list-of-clocks sounds better and better.
| 
| Hopefully, for each  system, the characteristics of each clock can be 
| discovered, and fully characterized in available metadata for the clock...

Victor has asked me to do that for my skeleton, based on the tables he
has assembled. I'll see what i can do there...

| Of course, it is not clear that all of these characteristics can be 
| determined based on OS/Version; hardware vendors may have different 
| implementations.

If you can look up the kernel revision you can do fairly well. In
principle.

| There should be a way to add new clock objects to the list, given a set 
| of characteristics, and an API to retrieve them, at least by installing 
| a submodule that provides access to an additional clock.

Returning to seriousness, the get_clock() call admits a clocklist.
-- 
Cameron Simpson <cs at zip.com.au> DoD#743
http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/

Principles have no real force except when one is well fed.      - Mark Twain