[Python-Dev] Consolidate stateful runtime globals

[Koos Zevenhoven]

On Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 8:17 PM, Benjamin Peterson <benjamin at python.org>
wrote:

> On Wed, Sep 6, 2017, at 10:08, Antoine Pitrou wrote:
> > On Wed, 06 Sep 2017 09:42:29 -0700
> > Benjamin Peterson <benjamin at python.org> wrote:
> > > On Wed, Sep 6, 2017, at 03:14, Antoine Pitrou wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Hello,
> > > >
> > > > I'm a bit concerned about
> > > > https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/
> 76d5abc8684bac4f2fc7cccfe2cd940923357351
> > > >
> > > > My main gripe is that makes writing C code more tedious.  Simple C
> > > > global variables such as "_once_registry" are now spelled
> > > > "_PyRuntime.warnings.once_registry".  The most egregious example
> seems
> > > > to be "_PyRuntime.ceval.gil.locked" (used to be simply "gil_locked").
> > > >
> > > > Granted, C is more verbose than Python, but it doesn't have to become
> > > > that verbose.  I don't know about you, but when code becomes annoying
> > > > to type, I tend to try and take shortcuts.
> > >
> > > How often are you actually typing the names of runtime globals, though?
> >
> > Not very often, but if I want to experiment with some low-level
> > implementation details, it is nice to avoid the hassle.
>
> It seems like this could be remediated with some inline functions or
> macros, which would also help safely encapsulate state.
>
> >
> > There's also a readability argument: with very long names, expressions
> > can become less easy to parse.
> >
> > > If you are using a globals, perhaps the typing time will allow you to
> > > fully consider the gravity of the situation.
> >
> > Right, I needed to be reminded of how perilous the use of C globals is.
> > Perhaps I should contact the PSRT the next time I contemplate using a C
> > global.
>
> It's not just you but future readers.


Great. Related to this, there is also discussion on dangers of globals and
other widely-scoped variables in the Rationale section of PEP 555
(Context-local variables), for anyone interested. But if you read the draft
I posted on python-ideas last Monday, you've already seen it.

––Koos


-- 
+ Koos Zevenhoven + http://twitter.com/k7hoven +
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