[Python-Dev] C99 code in the Python core? (original) (raw)

Mark Dickinson dickinsm at gmail.com
Sat Jul 5 11:39:34 CEST 2008

I have a general question and a specific question. First the general one:

(1) When is it okay to use C99 code in the Python core? More particularly, is it considered acceptable to use widely-implemented library functions that are specified in C99 but not ANSI C, or widely-implemented features that are new to C99?

Or is C99 code now acceptable pretty much anywhere? If so, should PEP 7 be updated? It currently says: """Use ANSI/ISO standard C (the 1989 version of the standard)."""

I think there are some C99 features that still aren't implemented everywhere, even on major platforms. (Examples are the inverse hyperbolic trig functions in math.h.)

And the specific question:

(2) Is it okay to use the '%a' format specifier for sprintf, sscanf and friends. Are there major platforms where this isn't implemented? (Using '%a' would make the issue implementation much simpler.)

Mark

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