[Python-Dev] PEP 3149 thoughts (original) (raw)

"Martin v. Löwis" martin at v.loewis.de
Sun Sep 12 19:31:36 CEST 2010

If it's useful on unix like systems, why shouldn't it be useful on windows? Multiple versions of python can be installed on windows too. And people might also like to share their packages between installations.

Multiple versions of Python install into distinct directories, so extension modules don't conflict. There is currently no provision for a central directory where Python packages get installed on Windows across Python versions, so the main motivation for the PEP doesn't exist.

The secondary motivation, to have both debug and non-debug versions of an extension module in the same folder, is already provided by the _d.pyd mechanism on Windows (which was introduced before the PEP process was established).

Of course, somebody could come along and propose that extension modules should install into "\Program Files\Common\Python3" (say), and that Python versions starting from 3.3 (or so) should include that directory in their search path by default. IMO, that would be a separate PEP, and I would hope that if such a location is established, the PEP 3149 motivation is not relevant anymore, since extension modules installed into such a location might use the stable ABI, anyway.

Regards, Martin

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