On 13Apr2020 2308, André Malo wrote:
For one thing, if you open up APIs for Cython, they're open for everybody
(Cython being "just" another C extension).
More to the point: The ABIs have the same problem as they have now, regardless
how responsive the Cython developers are. Once you compiled the extension,
you're using the ABI and are supposedly not required to recompile to stay
compatible.
So, where I'm getting at is: Either you open up to everybody or nobody. In C
there's not really an in-between.
On a technical level, you are correct.
On a policy level, we don't make changes that would break users of the C
API. Because we can't track everyone who's using it, we have to assume
that everything is used and any change will cause breakage.
To make sure it's possible to keep developing CPython, we declare parts
of the API off limits (typically by prepending them with an underscore).
If you use these, and you break, we're sorry but we aren't going to fix it.
This line of discussion is basically saying that we would designate a
broader section of the API that is off limits, most likely the parts
that are only useful for increased performance (rather than increased
functionality). We would then specifically include the Cython
team/volunteers in discussions about how to manage changes to these
parts of the API to avoid breaking them, and possibly do simultaneous
releases to account for changes so that their users have more time to
rebuild.
Effectively, when we change our APIs, we would break everyone except
Cython because we've worked with them to avoid the breakage. Anyone else
using it has to make their own effort to follow CPython development and
detect any breakage themselves (just like today).
So probably the part you're missing is where we would give ourselves
permission to break more APIs in a release, while simultaneously
encouraging people to use Cython as an isolation layer from those breaks.
(Cython is still just a placeholder name here, btw. There are 1-2 other
projects that could be considered instead, though I think Cython is the
only one that also provides a usability improvement as well as API
stability.)
Cheers,
Steve
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