[Python-Dev] sys.implementation (original) (raw)

Jeff Hardy jdhardy at gmail.com
Fri May 11 19:28:32 CEST 2012

On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 3:39 PM, Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:

Aye. Add a rule that all implementation specific (i.e. not defined in the PEP) keys must be prefixed with an underscore and I'm sold.

So now we're adding a new convention to single underscore names? Single underscore names are implementation-specific details that you shouldn't use or rely on, except in sys.implementation, where they are an optional part of the public interface.

I've always seen _names as less implementation details and more 'here be dragons; tread carefully'. I don't think adding a different convention really changes that at all.

The underscore ones would (mostly) be implementation-specific anyway. _clr_version is something only IronPython is going to have, for example. If more than one implementation has something it can be promoted to a non-underscore name, but I think that will be rare. Some of the suggested metadata (like vcs_revision and build date) could actually be required right out of the gate, and cache_tag should be optional.

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