[niemeyer@conectiva.com: Re: [Python-Dev] Python's footprint]

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Gustavo Niemeyer wrote:
> 
> > Why don't you use macro which only takes the name of the
> > static array and the doc-string itself as argument ? This
> > could then be expanded to whatever needs to be done for
> > a particular case/platform, e.g.
> >
> > Py_DefineDocString(foo__doc__, "foo does bar");
> >
> > (I use such an approach in the mx stuff and it works great.)
> 
> Yes, it's a nice idea!
> 
> I'm looking for some way to "discard" the string using a macro. Let me
> explain with code:
> 
> [...]
> #define Py_DOCSTR(name, str) static char *name = str
> #ifdef WITH_DOC_STRINGS
> #define Py_DOCSTR_START(name) Py_DOCSTR(name,)
> #define Py_DOCSTR_END ;
> #else
> #define Py_DOCSTR_START(name) Py_DOCSTR(name, ""); /* Also discards what
>                                                       follows somehow */
> #define Py_DOCSTR_END /* Stop discarding */
> #endif
> [...]
> 
> This would make it possible to do something like this:
> 
> Py_DOCSTR(simple_doc, "This is a simple doc string.");
> 
> ...and also...
> 
> Py_DOCSTR_START(complex_doc)
> "This is a complex doc string"
> #ifndef MS_WIN16
> "like the one in sysmodule.c"
> #endif
> "Something else"
> Py_DOCSTR_END
> 
> This seems to be the most elegant way to allow these complex strings.
> But unfortunately, I haven't found any way so far to do this "discarding
> thing", besides including another "#if" in the documentation itself.
> 
> Any good ideas?

Wouldn't it be much simpler to wrap the complete Py_DOCSTR() 
into #ifdefs ?

BTW, I don't we'll ever need to #ifdef doc-strings for platforms;
you can just as well put the information for all platforms into 
the doc-string -- after the recipient is a human with enough 
non-AI to parse the doc-string into meaningful sections ;-)

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
______________________________________________________________________
Company & Consulting:                           http://www.egenix.com/
Python Software:                   http://www.egenix.com/files/python/