[Python-ideas] os.architecture

[Andrew Barnert]

On Dec 30, 2013, at 0:56, anatoly techtonik <techtonik at gmail.com> wrote:

> Ok. Architecture is a fail in terminology. The word "OS architecture"
> can mean many things, and it will be the same design flaw as os.name.
> 
> How about os.bitness instead?

You missed the part where you were told that os is for OS services, not platform (including hardware, interpreter, and OS) information. That, as you might guess, goes in platform. And it's already there, as you've been told at least three times, so there is no need to add it.

Anyway, "bitness" by itself doesn't tell you whether it will return 32 or 64 when running a 32-bit Python on 64-bit Windows (much less when running a universal 64-bit-capable Python on 64-bit Mac in 32-bit mode). It's just as potentially ambiguous as the functions that already exist, and therefore no better than them. And of course they have the advantage of already existing, and working in older versions of Python, and so on.

Instead of being bewildered by "what could platform possibly mean", just skim the docs, or use the builtin help.