Python ctypes / pywin32 [was: GUIs - A Modest Proposal]

[Terry Reedy]

On 6/12/2010 11:57 AM, lkcl wrote:
> On Jun 10, 6:26 pm, "Martin v. Loewis"<mar... at v.loewis.de>  wrote:
>

>> ctypes is inherently unsafe.
>> It must be possible to remove it
>> from a Python installation,

Which is to say, anyone who wants to remove it from *their* individual 
custom installation should be able to do so, without disabling other 
stdlib modules. I can imagine someone providing Python hosting on shared 
machines might want to do so.

[snip]

>   removal of ctypes would be a big, big mistake.  i trust that i have
> misinterpreted the implication of what you're saying, martin.

I believe so. It was an independent 3rd party module of Thomas Heller 
(who is still maintaining it) until recently and I have seen no 
suggestion that it be removed in general from the PSF distribution.
Indeed, other distributions are implementing it also. Interface modules 
written with ctypes are more portable to such than the same modules 
written in C with, for instance, SWIG. For some people, is it also much 
easier than SWIG. So it is an important addition to the stdlib.

Terry Jan Reedy