[issue12794] platform: add a major function to get the system major version

[STINNER Victor]

STINNER Victor <victor.stinner at haypocalc.com> added the comment:

> I'm not sure I understand why platform.release() isn't sufficient
> for this purpose. Note that some systems return alphanumeric
> values for platform.release(), e.g. for Windows you get
> 'NT' or 'XP'.

It's not easy to get 2 (int) from '2.6.38-8-generic' (str). For Windows, there *is* a major version:

 * Windows 3.1 : 3
 * Windows 95/98, NT 4 : 4
 * Windows XP, 2003 : 5
 * Vista, Seven : 6

The major version is maybe less revelant for Windows.

Anyway...

> platform.major() will be needed if we remove the major
> version for all platforms from sys.platform (issue #12795).

I just closed the issue #12795, and so I don't think that this issue is still needed and so I close it. Reopen it if you still see an use case.

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue12794>
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