version-number dependency in extensions (was Re: ConfigParser module in 1.52 is buggy?)

[Mark Hammond]

Neil Hodgson wrote:

>    Now where in Python's DLLs can loading be intercepted? PythonCom[xx] is
> possible but it would require dropping the implicit links to Python[xx] and
> PyWinTypes[xx] and using explict links and fixups. Not fun. However the
> interception could create an earlier stage with a PyStub that just offers
> the basic 4 COM entry points, does explict LoadLibrary[Ex]s and forwards the
> basic 4 to PythonCom which would have to know to register PyStub as the
> server.


That would work fine for COM.  However, as noted in the thread I pointed 
at, the problem is not limited to COM.  The win32all installer tries to 
use Python, and it too has the same basic problem.

In general, this change would mean that embedders can not expect their 
code to "just work".  They would need to take special action or copy 
Python into their application directory.  Pythonwin would not work as it 
stands (but this is simple to fix; pythonwin could get installed in the 
same dir as python.exe).  PyXPCOM would not work.  Any program _other_ 
than python.exe and pythonw.exe would need this special handling.

This is not to suggest it is necessarily a bad thing, but it clearly is 
not a great thing <wink>.  Are we just transferring the pain?

Mark.