print statement and multithreading

[Alex Martelli]

"Paul Duffin" <pduffin at hursley.ibm.com> wrote in message
news:39A6557A.890B7541 at hursley.ibm.com...
    [snip]
> When you say that Python will support "The C Standard" you
> need to have an exact definition (URL) of the standard,
> "ANSI C" is not sufficient because otherwise everybody will

URL?!  The International Standards Institute does not
recognize URL's as valid (normative) concept, I believe.
An ISO standard is defined by its ISO code and date, not
by the content of any URL whatsoever.

"ISO/IEC 9899:1990" is as close as it gets.  The previous
(ANSI) standard was ANS X3.159-1989, but it was replaced
by the ISO standard, world-wide, including the United States.

> have a different idea of what constitutes "ANSI C". This can

The Standard is fully defined by the above-mentioned documents
(obviously as amended by the ISO working committees: currently,
Technical Corrigendum 1 [1994] and Normative Addendum 1 [?date?],
at least, are law [part of the current definition of ISO 9899,
and implicitly *and normatively* referenced when that standard
is specified).

> either be a complete standard (preferable), or just the parts
> that Python uses.

I'm not sure about what you have in mind, but, in case it's
that, you cannot just publish copies of an ISO Standard: ISO
retains copyright, and you need to license it from them (such
licensing fees are used by ISO as a revenue source).

I understand it would be different were it strictly a United
States matter (governmental bodies cannot, by law, own any
copyright in the US, isn't it so?), but it isn't.


> Also, are you going to enforce this by checking when
> configuring Python that the compiler is 'Standard', passing
> the correct options to the compiler to make it so if it
> doesn't default to it or will you rely on the user 'knowing'
> enough to do thinks like
> CC="cc -ansi-magic-blah" ./configure ....

At this point I'm not sure I understand what you mean by
"you" in this context.  _I_, as an individual, am most likely
not going to either enforce, or fail to enforce, anything
whatsoever.  As for "checking", there are no conformance
suites officially blessed by ISO (that I know of), and I do
not understand what, pragmatically, that would add.

A configuration/setup file normally suggests/defaults-to
certain switches/options for whateve compiler targets, of
course; e.g., "-lm" is a popular option to ensure the math
library gets included at link-time.  On a supported platform,
those switches are part of the way the build is pre-configured;
on an unknown platform, determining the appropriate switches
is part of the porting process.  You seem to be implying that
there is something deeply different from doing this for the
purpose of "ensuring ISO 9899 is supported at some level"
rather than the purpose of "ensuring the math libraries are
included in the link step" -- or, indeed, finding out WHAT
the name of the C compiler *IS* on some unknown platform
(surely you don't believe it's "cc" everywhere, right...?-).

So, what point[s], exactly, are you trying to make, or else
to ascertain...?


Alex