Stable ABI

Posted Jan 2, 2014 14:40 UTC (Thu) by vstinner (subscriber, #42675)
In reply to: Debating a "transitional" Python 2.8 by Cyberax
Parent article: Debating a "transitional" Python 2.8

> Well, so does maintaining strict backwards-compatible ABI in Linux.

"Since Python 3.2, a subset of the API has been declared to guarantee a stable ABI."
http://docs.python.org/3/c-api/stable.html

Before Python 3.2, no effort was put to maintain the stability of the ABI.

With Python 3.3, there is no more narrow or wide build for Unicode strings, but I don't know the impact on the ABI.

Stable ABI

Posted Jan 2, 2014 14:46 UTC (Thu) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

I'm talking about trying hard not to break end-users' programs. Python hadn't tried to do that, Python designers gleefully went on and broke compatibility. Is it a wonder that most developers simply decided to wait and see?