[Python-Dev] Restricted API versioning

[Chris Angelico]

On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 5:08 PM, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 5:00 PM, "Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de> wrote:
>>> This strikes me as in opposition to the Python-level policy of duck
>>> typing. Would it be more appropriate to, instead of asking if it's
>>> Python 3.3.0, ask if it's a Python that supports PY_FEATURE_FOOBAR? Or
>>> would that result in an unnecessary proliferation of flag macros?
>>
>> It would, hence I'm -1. I believe it is the motivation for the gcc
>> assertion preprocessor feature, which never caught on.
>
> Right, if someone wants to check for a specific feature rather than
> just figuring out once the minimum version of the stable ABI that they
> need, then they can write an autotools macro (or equivalent in other
> build systems).

Fair enough. I assume these sorts of things are only ever going to be
added once, and not backported to old versions, so a single version
number is guaranteed to suffice (it's not like "available in 4.5.6 and
4.6.2 and 4.7.4"). Go with the easy option!

ChrisA