[Python-ideas] improving C structs layout

[Chris Angelico]

On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 5:06 PM, Stefan Behnel <stefan_ml at behnel.de> wrote:
> Terry Jan Reedy, 08.05.2013 23:32:
>> On 5/8/2013 1:58 PM, Charles-François Natali wrote:
>>>> General +0 from me.
>>>
>>> Thanks for your help Nick ;-)
>>
>> First question: is there any downside in terms of breaking code?
>
> Certainly. It should not be done for public structs, which includes
> basically everything that resides in header files. Modifying public structs
> changes the ABI, so a module compiled for one CPython version would need to
> be recompiled for the one that changes the structs *if* it uses them. I
> don't think this change is worth that risk and hassle.

Would that be a problem if the change is done only in 3.4, though?

ChrisA