[Python-Dev] PEP 433: Choose the default value of the new cloexec parameter

[Cameron Simpson]

On 25Jan2013 21:07, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:
| It's a configurable setting in the same way that -Q makes the
| behaviour of "/" configurable in Python 2 (so your hypothetical
| example isn't hypothetical at all - it's a description the -Q option),
| and -R makes random hashing configurable in 2.7 and 3.2: it means we
| can change the default behaviour in a future version (perhaps Python
| 4) while allowing people to easily check if their code operates
| correctly in that state in the current version.
| 
| I think the default behaviour needs to be configurable from the
| environment and the command line, but I don't believe it should be
| configurable from within the interpreter.

Hmm. This I can live with more happily, though I'm still uneasy.

As an aside, I tend to feel that if something is tuneable it should be
exposed within the interpreter. Maybe only in an exciting new module
called shoot_self_in_foot or some similarly alarming name...

Cheers,
-- 
Cameron Simpson <cs at zip.com.au>

That said, I'm inclined to agree that that's not necessarily a good
idea.  I always wanted to write a little program that would pop up a
Mac window to ask ``I'm going to amputate a limb at random from you
now.'' to see how many people would instinctively click "OK".
        - Marc VanHeyningen <mvanheyn at cs.indiana.edu>