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

[André Malo]

Victor Stinner wrote:

> Replacing macros with functions has little impact on backward
> compatibility. Most C extensions should still work if macros become
> functions.

As long as they are recompiled. However, they will lose a lot of performance. 
Both these points have been mentioned somewhere, I'm certain, but it cannot be 
stressed enough, IMHO.

> 
> I'm not sure yet how far we should go towards a perfect API which
> doesn't leak everything. We have to move slowly, and make sure that we
> don't break major C extensions. We need to write tools to fully
> automate the conversion. If it's not possible, maybe the whole project
> will fail.

I'm wondering, how you suggest to measure "major". I believe, every C 
extension, which is public and running in production somewhere, is major 
enough.

Maybe "easiness to fix"? Lines of code?

Cheers,
-- 
> Rätselnd, was ein Anthroposoph mit Unterwerfung zu tun hat...
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