[Python-Dev] Python 3.4 and Windows XP: just 45 days until EOL

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Thu, 11 Jul 2013 22:28:49 -0400
"R. David Murray" <rdmurray at bitdance.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Jul 2013 13:49:54 +1200, Ben Hoyt <benhoyt at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I guess it has to be dropped at some stage, but with Windows XP it's a case
> > of "XP is dead. Long live XP!" There are still an awful lot of XP boxes out
> > there, and I'd kind hate to see support dropped completely. We still use it
> > here at home.
> > 
> > Wikipedia/Net Applications says that Windows XP has still has a full 37% of
> > market share! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
> > )
> > 
> > What about just have these attributes/functions on OSes that support it,
> > for example os.kill on Python 2.6 vs 2.7?
> 
> I'm afraid it's not that simple.  The issue (as I understand it from Crys)
> is that we compile using setting that prevent the advanced features being
> used, and that's really the only way to do it.  That is, you can only get
> the advanced features by using certain settings, and if you use those,
> the compiled code won't run on XP.  So it is not practical to decide only
> at runtime to support the advanced feature,

It's not practical, but we already do it.  See
check_GetFinalPathNameByHandle in Modules/posixmodule.c.

Regards

Antoine.