[Python-Dev] Experiment an opt-in new C API for Python? (leave current API unchanged)

[Neil Schemenauer]

On 2018-11-09, Dino Viehland wrote:
> Rather than adding yet another pre-processor directive for this I would
> suggest just adding a new header file that only has the new stable API.
> For example it could just be "py.h" or "pyapi.h".  It would have all of the
> definitions for the stable API.

I like this idea.  It will be easier to define a minimal and clean
API with this approach.  I believe it can mostly be a subset of the
current API.

I think we could Dino's idea with Nathaniel's suggestion of
developing it separate from CPython.  Victor's C-API project is
already attempting to provide backwards compatibility.  I.e. you can
have an extension module that uses the new API but compiles and runs
with older versions of Python (e.g. 3.6).  So, whatever is inside
this new API, it must be possible to build it on top of the existing
Python API.

Regards,

  Neil