add whatsnew entry for PEP 421

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Eric Snow 2012-09-05 22:19:38 -07:00
parent 5b4faae307
commit b2a61e1ead
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@ -564,6 +564,41 @@ which considerably simplifies writing decorators and any code that validates
or amends calling signatures or arguments.
PEP 421: Adding sys.implementation
==================================
:pep:`421` - Adding sys.implementation
PEP written and implemented by Eric Snow.
A new attribute on the :mod:`sys` module exposes details specific to the
implementation of the currently running interpreter. The initial set of
attributes on :attr:`sys.implementation` are ``name``, ``version``,
``hexversion``, and ``cache_tag``.
The intention of ``sys.implementation`` is to consolidate into one namespace
the implementation-specific data used by the standard library. This allows
different Python implementations to share a single standard library code base
much more easily. In its initial state, ``sys.implementation`` holds only a
small portion of the implementation-specific data. Over time that ratio will
shift in order to make the standard library more portable.
One example of improved standard library portability is ``cache_tag``. As of
Python 3.3, ``sys.implementation.cache_tag`` is used by :mod:`importlib` to
support :pep:`3147` compliance. Any Python implementation that uses
``importlib`` for its built-in import system may use ``cache_tag`` to control
the caching behavior for modules.
SimpleNamespace
---------------
The implementation of ``sys.implementation`` also introduces a new type to
Python: :class:`types.SimpleNamespace`. In contrast to a mapping-based
namespace, like :class:`dict`, ``SimpleNamespace`` is attribute-based, like
:class:`object`. However, unlike ``object``, ``SimpleNamespace`` instances
are writable. This means that you can add, remove, and modify the namespace
through normal attribute access.
.. _importlib:
Using importlib as the Implementation of Import