On 7/31/2014 5:59 PM, Shiz wrote:
Hi folks,
I’m working on porting CPython to the Android platform, and while making decent
progress, I’m currently stuck at a higher-level issue than adding #ifdefs for
__ANDROID__ to C extension modules.
The idea is, not only CPython extension modules have some assumptions that
don’t seem to fit Android’s mold, some default Python-written modules do as
well. However, whereas CPython extensions can trivially check if we’re building
for Android by checking the __ANDROID__ compiler macro, Python modules can do
no such check, and are left wondering how to figure out if the platform they
are currently running on is an Android one. To my knowledge there is no
reliable way to detect if one is using Android as a vehicle for their journey
using any other way.
Now, the main question is: what would be the best way to ‘expose’ the
indication that Android is being ran on to Python-living modules? My own
thought was to add sys.getlinuxuserland(), or platform.linux_userland(), in
similar vein to sys.getwindowsversion() and platform.linux_distribution(),
which could return information about the userland of running CPython instance,
instead of knowing merely the kernel and the distribution.
I've no idea what you mean by "userland" in your suggestions above or
below, but doesn't the Android environment qualify as a
(multi-versioned) platform independently of its host OS? Seems I've read
about an Android reimplementation for Windows, for example. As long as
all the services expected by Android are faithfully produced, the host
OS may be irrelevant to an Android application... in which case, I would
think/propose/suggest the platform name should change from win32 or
linux to Android (and the Android version be reflected in version parts).
This way, code could trivially check if it ran on the GNU(+associates)
userland, or under a BSD-ish userland, or Android… and adjust its behaviour
accordingly.
I would be delighted to hear comments on this proposal, or better yet,
alternative solutions. :)
Kind regards,
Shiz
P.S.: I am well aware that Android might as well never be officially supported
in CPython. In that case, consider this a thought experiment of how it /would/
be handled. :)
Is your P.S. suggestive that you would not be willing to support your
port for use by others? Of course, until it is somewhat complete, it is
hard to know how complete and compatible it can be.
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