[Python-Dev] stat return types

[Guido van Rossum]

> Nich Mathewson has developed a patch that allows to access stat fields
> by name, rather than by tuple index, while preserving backwards
> compatibility, see
> 
> http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=305470&aid=462296&group_id=5470

(I still have a comment on the patch.)

> One issue is non-posix stat implementations, which currently live in
> riscos and mac. Any comments on the patch are appreciated, in
> particular with regard to the following question:
> 
> - should we attempt to modify those modules even though we cannot test
>   the modifications, or should we accept that field access will not be
>   possible on these platforms until somebody with platform access
>   fixes them?

We should attempt to fix these implementations and notify the authors.

> - should the patch go into 2.2 (personally, I'd like to see it
>   integrated)?

Yes.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)