[Python-Dev] Path PEP: some comments

[Terry Reedy]

"Phillip J. Eby" <pje at telecommunity.com> wrote in message 
news:5.1.1.6.0.20060204160108.0410c758 at mail.telecommunity.com...
> Note that this is the opposite of normal Python policy: Python does not
> attempt to create cross-platform abstractions, but instead chooses to
> expose platform differences.

I had the opposite impression about Python -- that it generally masks such 
differences.  Overall, I see it as a cross-platform abstraction.  The 
requirement that ints be at least 32 bits masked the difference between 
16-bit int and 32-bit int platforms, in a way that C did/does not.  I am 
pretty sure that Tim Peters has said that he would welcome better 
uniformity in binary float computations, but that he won't do the work 
needed.  The decimal package attempts to completely mask the underlying 
platform.  Cross-platform guis, whether written in Python or just 
accessible from Python, also mask differences.  The os module has names 
like  sep and pathsep precisely so people can more easily write platform 
independent code.  And so on.