[issue28670] PEP 235: Implement on every POSIX system, and clean up the C code for `import'
Michael Witten
report at bugs.python.org
Wed Nov 16 11:54:33 EST 2016
Michael Witten added the comment:
* Bugs, by their very nature, are often obscure; some of the worst
in history have lain dormant, unseen, for years or perhaps even
decades.
Unsurprisingly, then, this bug is also a corner case that would be
unknowingly triggered in practice only rarely; consequently, it is
unsurprising that it has not been reported previously, despite the
fact that the mistake is OBVIOUS in a retrospective (and literal!)
reading of PEP 235, which is clearly naive in its view of the world
of computing systems.
* Furthermore, in any computing system that is sufficiently complex,
there is usually a workaround for any particular bug, which thus
diminishes the impetus to report the problem at all; this just
compounds the obscurity of the bug.
* The more obscure a bug, the less compelling the ratio of the
reward to the solution effort, particularly when the objections
are mired not in technical analysis, but rather in an incomplete
understanding of the report, as well as perhaps some kind of
political puffery.
So, why bother even beginning a discussion of the issue?
Indeed, this correspondence has proven to me (once again,
unfortunately) that it's usually an utter waste of resources to
attempt to solve problems purely for the benefit of others. Let
the confused gnash their teeth, and let the clever hack their
own way out of trouble. As long as my personal itch has been
scratched in some way, that's good enough.
* How is it that you did not perceive the irrelevance of [at least
the rest of] your reply?
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