[Python-Dev] Preventing 1.5 extensions crashing under 1.6/2.0 Python (original) (raw)

Barry Scott barry@scottb.demon.co.uk
Sat, 5 Aug 2000 00:19:52 +0100

> Yes indeed once the story of 1.6 and 2.0 is out I expect folks > will skip 1.6. For example, if your win32 stuff is not ported then > Python 1.6 is not usable on Windows/NT.

"not usable"? guess you haven't done much cross-platform development lately...

True. On Unix I have an ISDN status monitor, it depends on
FReeBSD interfaces and PIL. On Windows I have an SCM
solution that depends on COM to drive SourceSafe.

Without Mark's COM support I cannot run any of my code on
Windows.

> Change the init function name to a new name PythonExtensionInit say. > Pass in the API version for the extension writer to check. If the > version is bad for this extension returns without calling any python

huh? are you seriously proposing to break every single C extension ever written -- on each and every platform -- just to trap an error message caused by extensions linked against 1.5.2 on your favourite platform?

What makes you think that a crash will not happen under Unix
when you change the API? You just don't get the Windows crash.

As this thread has pointed out you have no intention of checking
for binary compatibility on the API as you move up versions.

> Small code change in python core. But need to tell extension writers > what the new interface is and update all extensions within the python > CVS tree.

you mean "update the source code for all extensions ever written."

Yes, I'm aware of the impact.

-1

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