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[Python-Dev] Fast access to __builtins__

Guido van Rossum guido@python.org
Fri, 28 Mar 2003 07:45:03 -0500 
> > Frankly, I'm a bit confused by your post.  Maybe I don't understand
> > what you're proposing?
> 
> Modules are modules, right?  That is, pickle.py and cPickle.so are both
> represented as module objects at runtime.  A C extension can call
> PyModule_GetDict() on any module.  If so, then any extension module can
> add names to the __dict__ of any Python module.  The problem is that
> modules expose their representation at the C API level (namespace
> implemented as PyDictObject), so it's difficult to forbid things at the
> C level.

Oh sure.  I don't think it's necessary to forbid things at the C API
level in the sense of making it impossible to do.  We'll just document
that C code shouldn't do that.  There's plenty that C code could do
but shouldn't because it breaks the world.

I don't expect there will be much C in violation of this prohibition.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)