[Python-Dev] del and tp_dealloc in the IO lib (original) (raw)

Steve Holden steve at holdenweb.com
Fri Jan 23 13:05:59 CET 2009

Giovanni Bajo wrote:

On gio, 2009-01-22 at 18:42 -0800, Guido van Rossum wrote: [...] I miss to understand why many Python developers are so fierce in trying to push the idea of cross-python compatibility (which is something that does simply not exist in real world for applications) or to warn about rainy days in the future when this would stop working in CPython. I would strongly prefer that CPython would settle on (= document) using reference counting and immediate destruction so that people can stop making their everyday code more complex with no benefit. You will be losing no more than an open door that nobody has entered in 20 years, and people would only benefit from it.

Probably because it's good practice to write for compatibility where possible. Cross-OS compatibility isn't possible in the general case either, but it's still a good goal in the cases where it is possible.

Given that your sample code will generally work even for implementations where garbage collection is used rather than reference counting I fail to understand why you insist so hard that a more restrictive rule should be implemented.

regards Steve

Steve Holden +1 571 484 6266 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC http://www.holdenweb.com/

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