[Python-Dev] Include ctypes into core Python?

[Thomas Heller]

"Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de> writes:

> Guido van Rossum wrote:
>> On the other hand it breaks one of the most fundamental Python
>> guidelines: if you get a core dump (segfault etc.) it's a bug in
>> Python or in a 3rd party extension, not in *your* Python code. An
>> exception would have to be made for any code that uses ctypes, as it
>> is usually trivial to cause core dumps with ctypes (I'd venture it's
>> hard to avoid them ;-).
>> 
>> I don't expect this to count against including ctypes; but I do want
>> it to be dealt with somehow!
>
> I think the strongest point *for* ctypes is the inclusion of dl
> in the source distribution, which has the very same flaws as
> ctypes in terms of crashability.
>
> So as for dealing with it "somehow": I would make ctypes a dynamically
> loaded module (ctypes.pyd), so administrators could remove it, and
> I could also make it a separate option in the Windows installer,
> so administrators could reject to install it.

Sounds good, although it should be noted that ctypes is a package now,
with a ctypes.wrap subpackage (contains the code generator), a
ctypes.macholib subpackage (contains Bob Ippolitos macholib for OS X),
and ctypes.test subpackage whcih contains several test modules.  Plus
the _ctypes.(dll|so) extension module.

Thomas