The launcher was slightly controversial when the pep was initially
written 12 months ago.
So what were the objections?
Assuming you are proposing some future action for CPython,
I'm opposed to the notion that the implementation of the
launcher is the specification. The specification needs to be
in the PEP. It may leave room, in which case the remaining
details need to be specified in the documentation.
I'm really not sure what you are trying to say here.
Let me try again: I dislike the phrase "written in C, which defines
the detailed implementation". That means that in order to find out
what the launcher does, you have to read its source code. I also
dislike the phrase "but instead to offer guidelines the launcher
should adhere to"; the PEP should not just be guidelines, but a
clear, prescriptive specification.
I admit that I had difficulties to find the places in the PEP
where it specifies things, as opposed to explaining things. It
seems that all of the sections
- An overview of the launcher.
- Guidelines for a Python launcher.
- Shebang line parsing
- Virtual commands in shebang lines:
- Customized Commands:
- Python Version Qualifiers
- Command-line handling
- Process Launching
are specification, so it may help to group them as subsections of
a top-level heading "Specification".
OTOH, "Process Launching" has 4 paragraphs of discussion, then
two sentences of specification, then 1,5 sentences of discussion.
I wish it was easier to find out what the PEP actually says.
That the PEP should remove all references to an implementation
specification, or that the PEP simply should be withdrawn?
Having references to the implementation is fine; saying that you
have to read the code to understand what it does, and that the
code takes precedence over the PEP is not.
If it comes with the Python distribution,
how get multiple copies of the launcher coordinated?
This may not be specified as well as it could, but: "Future versions
of the launcher should remain backwards compatible with older
versions, so later versions of Python can install an updated version
of the launcher without impacting how the previously installed
version of the launcher is used."
That's not really my concern. I didn't originally find the place where
it said that the launcher goes into the Windows directory. Now that I
see it: how do you prevent deinstallation of py.exe when some version
of Python is uninstalled, but other versions remain?
Regards,
Martin
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