[Python-Dev] Proposal for new core module: UserFIle

[Guido van Rossum]

> > 1. What is the purpose of hiding EINTR?
> 
> My code uses a lot of interrupts (SIGALRM, SIGIO, SIGCHLD, ...) and I
> almost always need to trap and restart interrupted system calls. So I
> made that wrapper. Nearly all I/O uses it. In fact, I think it should be
> the default behavior....

Here we may have a fundamental disagreement.  In my view it is
impossible to write correct code when signal handlers can run any
time, and therefore I have given up on using signals at all.

Everything you do with signals can also be done without signals, and
usually more portably.  (You may have to use threads.)

Making read and write ignore EINTR doesn't solve all signal-related
problems, it just makes them rarer, thereby *increasing* the
possibility that despite thorough testing your code will be incorrect,
and you will face irreproducible but real error reports from the field.

Also note that Python takes non-Posix systems very seriously, and
augmentations to standard object types that only work on Posix are
generally rejected.  (isatty() is an old wart and would these days
probably not have been accepted as a file object method.)

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