[Python-Dev] Name space pollution (fwd)

[Guido van Rossum]

> I'm trying to get Python to coexist with the State Threads library
> (http://state-threads.sourceforge.net/), but I'm having problems due
> to the fact that Python defines the word "destructor" as a typedef.
> Specifically, after including Python.h, the following line in the
> State Threads header file st.h does not compile:
> 
>   extern int st_key_create(int *keyp, void (*destructor)(void *));
> 
> It seems to me that Python should not be polluting the namespace this
> way - shouldn't the Python typedef be something like PyDestructor
> instead of just "destructor"?
> 
> Python also pollutes a number of other common symbols in a similar way,
> for example, "cmpfunc", "hashfunc", and "initproc".
> 
> Is there any chance this will be fixed?

If you care about this, submit a patch.

But it may be a lot easier to do some #define magic, e.g.

#define destructor PyDestructor
#include "Python.h"
#undef destructor
#include "st.h"

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