434 lines
16 KiB
ReStructuredText
434 lines
16 KiB
ReStructuredText
PEP: 579
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Title: Refactoring C functions and methods
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Author: Jeroen Demeyer <J.Demeyer@UGent.be>
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BDFL-Delegate: Petr Viktorin
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Status: Final
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Type: Informational
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Content-Type: text/x-rst
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Created: 04-Jun-2018
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Post-History: 20-Jun-2018
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Approval Notice
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===============
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This PEP describes design issues addressed in :pep:`575`, :pep:`580`, :pep:`590`
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(and possibly later proposals).
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As noted in :pep:`PEP 1 <1#pep-types>`:
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Informational PEPs do not necessarily represent a Python community
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consensus or recommendation, so users and implementers are free to
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ignore Informational PEPs or follow their advice.
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While there is no consensus on whether the issues or the solutions in
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this PEP are valid, the list is still useful to guide further design.
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Abstract
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========
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This meta-PEP collects various issues with CPython's existing implementation
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of built-in functions (functions implemented in C) and methods.
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Fixing all these issues is too much for one PEP,
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so that will be delegated to other standards track PEPs.
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However, this PEP does give some brief ideas of possible fixes.
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This is mainly meant to coordinate an overall strategy.
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For example, a proposed solution may sound too complicated
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for fixing any one single issue, but it may be the best overall
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solution for multiple issues.
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This PEP is purely informational:
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it does not imply that all issues will eventually
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be fixed, nor that they will be fixed using the solution proposed here.
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It also serves as a check-list of possible requested features
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to verify that a given fix does not make those
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other features harder to implement.
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The major proposed change is replacing ``PyMethodDef``
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by a new structure ``PyCCallDef``
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which collects everything needed for calling the function/method.
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In the ``PyTypeObject`` structure, a new field ``tp_ccalloffset``
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is added giving an offset to a ``PyCCallDef *`` in the object structure.
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**NOTE**: This PEP deals only with CPython implementation details,
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it does not affect the Python language or standard library.
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Issues
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======
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This lists various issues with built-in functions and methods,
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together with a plan for a solution and (if applicable)
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pointers to standards track PEPs discussing the details.
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1. Naming
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---------
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The word "built-in" is overused in Python.
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From a quick skim of the Python documentation, it mostly refers
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to things from the ``builtins`` module.
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In other words: things which are available in the global namespace
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without a need for importing them.
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This conflicts with the use of the word "built-in" to mean "implemented in C".
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**Solution**: since the C structure for built-in functions and methods is already
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called ``PyCFunctionObject``,
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let's use the name "cfunction" and "cmethod" instead of "built-in function"
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and "built-in method".
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2. Not extendable
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-----------------
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The various classes involved (such as ``builtin_function_or_method``)
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cannot be subclassed::
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>>> from types import BuiltinFunctionType
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>>> class X(BuiltinFunctionType):
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... pass
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Traceback (most recent call last):
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File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
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TypeError: type 'builtin_function_or_method' is not an acceptable base type
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This is a problem because it makes it impossible to add features
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such as introspection support to these classes.
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If one wants to implement a function in C with additional functionality,
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an entirely new class must be implemented from scratch.
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The problem with this is that the existing classes like
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``builtin_function_or_method`` are special-cased in the Python interpreter
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to allow faster calling (for example, by using ``METH_FASTCALL``).
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It is currently impossible to have a custom class with the same optimizations.
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**Solution**: make the existing optimizations available to arbitrary classes.
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This is done by adding a new ``PyTypeObject`` field ``tp_ccalloffset``
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(or can we re-use ``tp_print`` for that?)
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specifying the offset of a ``PyCCallDef`` pointer.
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This is a new structure holding all information needed to call
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a cfunction and it would be used instead of ``PyMethodDef``.
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This implements the new "C call" protocol.
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For constructing cfunctions and cmethods, ``PyMethodDef`` arrays
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will still be used (for example, in ``tp_methods``) but that will
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be the *only* remaining purpose of the ``PyMethodDef`` structure.
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Additionally, we can also make some function classes subclassable.
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However, this seems less important once we have ``tp_ccalloffset``.
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**Reference**: :pep:`580`
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3. cfunctions do not become methods
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-----------------------------------
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A cfunction like ``repr`` does not implement ``__get__`` to bind
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as a method::
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>>> class X:
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... meth = repr
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>>> x = X()
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>>> x.meth()
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Traceback (most recent call last):
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File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
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TypeError: repr() takes exactly one argument (0 given)
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In this example, one would have expected that ``x.meth()`` returns
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``repr(x)`` by applying the normal rules of methods.
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This is surprising and a needless difference
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between cfunctions and Python functions.
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For the standard built-in functions, this is not really a problem
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since those are not meant to used as methods.
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But it does become a problem when one wants to implement a
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new cfunction with the goal of being usable as method.
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Again, a solution could be to create a new class behaving just
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like cfunctions but which bind as methods.
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However, that would lose some existing optimizations for methods,
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such as the ``LOAD_METHOD``/``CALL_METHOD`` opcodes.
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**Solution**: the same as the previous issue.
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It just shows that handling ``self`` and ``__get__``
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should be part of the new C call protocol.
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For backwards compatibility, we would keep the existing non-binding
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behavior of cfunctions. We would just allow it in custom classes.
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**Reference**: :pep:`580`
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4. Semantics of inspect.isfunction
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----------------------------------
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Currently, ``inspect.isfunction`` returns ``True`` only for instances
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of ``types.FunctionType``.
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That is, true Python functions.
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A common use case for ``inspect.isfunction`` is checking for introspection:
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it guarantees for example that ``inspect.getfile()`` will work.
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Ideally, it should be possible for other classes to be treated as
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functions too.
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**Solution**: introduce a new ``InspectFunction`` abstract base class
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and use that to implement ``inspect.isfunction``.
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Alternatively, use duck typing for ``inspect.isfunction``
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(as proposed in [#bpo30071]_)::
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def isfunction(obj):
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return hasattr(type(obj), "__code__")
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5. C functions should have access to the function object
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--------------------------------------------------------
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The underlying C function of a cfunction currently
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takes a ``self`` argument (for bound methods)
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and then possibly a number of arguments.
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There is no way for the C function to actually access the Python
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cfunction object (the ``self`` in ``__call__`` or ``tp_call``).
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This would for example allow implementing the
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C call protocol for Python functions (``types.FunctionType``):
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the C function which implements calling Python functions
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needs access to the ``__code__`` attribute of the function.
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This is also needed for :pep:`573`
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where all cfunctions require access to their "parent"
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(the module for functions of a module or the defining class
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for methods).
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**Solution**: add a new ``PyMethodDef`` flag to specify
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that the C function takes an additional argument (as first argument),
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namely the function object.
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**References**: :pep:`580`, :pep:`573`
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6. METH_FASTCALL is private and undocumented
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--------------------------------------------
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The ``METH_FASTCALL`` mechanism allows calling cfunctions and cmethods
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using a C array of Python objects instead of a ``tuple``.
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This was introduced in Python 3.6 for positional arguments only
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and extended in Python 3.7 with support for keyword arguments.
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However, given that it is undocumented,
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it is presumably only supposed to be used by CPython itself.
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**Solution**: since this is an important optimization,
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everybody should be encouraged to use it.
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Now that the implementation of ``METH_FASTCALL`` is stable, document it!
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As part of the C call protocol, we should also add a C API function ::
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PyObject *PyCCall_FastCall(PyObject *func, PyObject *const *args, Py_ssize_t nargs, PyObject *keywords)
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**Reference**: :pep:`580`
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7. Allowing native C arguments
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------------------------------
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A cfunction always takes its arguments as Python objects
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(say, an array of ``PyObject`` pointers).
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In cases where the cfunction is really wrapping a native C function
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(for example, coming from ``ctypes`` or some compiler like Cython),
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this is inefficient: calls from C code to C code are forced to use
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Python objects to pass arguments.
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Analogous to the buffer protocol which allows access to C data,
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we should also allow access to the underlying C callable.
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**Solution**: when wrapping a C function with native arguments
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(for example, a C ``long``) inside a cfunction,
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we should also store a function pointer to the underlying C function,
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together with its C signature.
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Argument Clinic could automatically do this by storing
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a pointer to the "impl" function.
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8. Complexity
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-------------
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There are a huge number of classes involved to implement
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all variations of methods.
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This is not a problem by itself, but a compounding issue.
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For ordinary Python classes, the table below gives the classes
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for various kinds of methods.
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The columns refer to the class in the class ``__dict__``,
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the class for unbound methods (bound to the class)
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and the class for bound methods (bound to the instance):
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============= ================ ============ ============
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kind __dict__ unbound bound
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============= ================ ============ ============
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Normal method ``function`` ``function`` ``method``
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Static method ``staticmethod`` ``function`` ``function``
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Class method ``classmethod`` ``method`` ``method``
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Slot method ``function`` ``function`` ``method``
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============= ================ ============ ============
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This is the analogous table for extension types (C classes):
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============= ========================== ============================== ==============================
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kind __dict__ unbound bound
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============= ========================== ============================== ==============================
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Normal method ``method_descriptor`` ``method_descriptor`` ``builtin_function_or_method``
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Static method ``staticmethod`` ``builtin_function_or_method`` ``builtin_function_or_method``
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Class method ``classmethod_descriptor`` ``builtin_function_or_method`` ``builtin_function_or_method``
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Slot method ``wrapper_descriptor`` ``wrapper_descriptor`` ``method-wrapper``
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============= ========================== ============================== ==============================
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There are a lot of classes involved
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and these two tables look very different.
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There is no good reason why Python methods should be
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treated fundamentally different from C methods.
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Also the features are slightly different:
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for example, ``method`` supports ``__func__``
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but ``builtin_function_or_method`` does not.
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Since CPython has optimizations for calls to most of these objects,
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the code for dealing with them can also become complex.
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A good example of this is the ``call_function`` function in ``Python/ceval.c``.
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**Solution**: all these classes should implement the C call protocol.
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Then the complexity in the code can mostly be fixed by
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checking for the C call protocol (``tp_ccalloffset != 0``)
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instead of doing type checks.
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Furthermore, it should be investigated whether some of these classes can be merged
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and whether ``method`` can be re-used also for bound methods of extension types
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(see :pep:`576` for the latter,
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keeping in mind that this may have some minor backwards compatibility issues).
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This is not a goal by itself but just something to keep in mind
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when working on these classes.
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9. PyMethodDef is too limited
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-----------------------------
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The typical way to create a cfunction or cmethod in an extension module
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is by using a ``PyMethodDef`` to define it.
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These are then stored in an array ``PyModuleDef.m_methods``
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(for cfunctions) or ``PyTypeObject.tp_methods`` (for cmethods).
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However, because of the stable ABI (:pep:`384`),
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we cannot change the ``PyMethodDef`` structure.
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So, this means that we cannot add new fields for creating cfunctions/cmethods
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this way.
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This is probably the reason for the hack that
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``__doc__`` and ``__text_signature__`` are stored in the same C string
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(with the ``__doc__`` and ``__text_signature__`` descriptors extracting
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the relevant part).
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**Solution**: stop assuming that a single ``PyMethodDef`` entry
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is sufficient to describe a cfunction/cmethod.
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Instead, we could add some flag which means that one of the ``PyMethodDef``
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fields is instead a pointer to an additional structure.
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Or, we could add a flag to use two or more consecutive ``PyMethodDef``
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entries in the array to store more data.
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Then the ``PyMethodDef`` array would be used only to construct
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cfunctions/cmethods but it would no longer be used after that.
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10. Slot wrappers have no custom documentation
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----------------------------------------------
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Right now, slot wrappers like ``__init__`` or ``__lt__`` only have very
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generic documentation, not at all specific to the class::
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>>> list.__init__.__doc__
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'Initialize self. See help(type(self)) for accurate signature.'
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>>> list.__lt__.__doc__
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'Return self<value.'
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The same happens for the signature::
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>>> list.__init__.__text_signature__
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'($self, /, *args, **kwargs)'
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As you can see, slot wrappers do support ``__doc__``
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and ``__text_signature__``.
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The problem is that these are stored in ``struct wrapperbase``,
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which is common for all wrappers of a specific slot
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(for example, the same ``wrapperbase`` is used for ``str.__eq__`` and ``int.__eq__``).
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**Solution**: rethink the slot wrapper class to allow docstrings
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(and text signatures) for each instance separately.
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This still leaves the question of how extension modules
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should specify the documentation.
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The ``PyTypeObject`` entries like ``tp_init`` are just function pointers,
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we cannot do anything with those.
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One solution would be to add entries to the ``tp_methods`` array
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just for adding docstrings.
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Such an entry could look like ::
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{"__init__", NULL, METH_SLOTDOC, "pointer to __init__ doc goes here"}
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11. Static methods and class methods should be callable
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-------------------------------------------------------
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Instances of ``staticmethod`` and ``classmethod`` should be callable.
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Admittedly, there is no strong use case for this,
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but it has occasionally been requested (see for example [#bpo20309]_).
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Making static/class methods callable would increase consistency.
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First of all, function decorators typically add functionality or modify
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a function, but the result remains callable. This is not true for
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``@staticmethod`` and ``@classmethod``.
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Second, class methods of extension types are already callable::
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>>> fromhex = float.__dict__["fromhex"]
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>>> type(fromhex)
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<class 'classmethod_descriptor'>
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>>> fromhex(float, "0xff")
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255.0
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Third, one can see ``function``, ``staticmethod`` and ``classmethod``
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as different kinds of unbound methods:
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they all become ``method`` when bound, but the implementation of ``__get__``
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is slightly different.
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From this point of view, it looks strange that ``function`` is callable
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but the others are not.
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**Solution**:
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when changing the implementation of ``staticmethod``, ``classmethod``,
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we should consider making instances callable.
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Even if this is not a goal by itself, it may happen naturally
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because of the implementation.
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References
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==========
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.. [#bpo20309] Not all method descriptors are callable
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(https://bugs.python.org/issue20309)
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.. [#bpo30071] Duck-typing inspect.isfunction()
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(https://bugs.python.org/issue30071)
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Copyright
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=========
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This document has been placed in the public domain.
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..
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Local Variables:
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mode: indented-text
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indent-tabs-mode: nil
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sentence-end-double-space: t
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fill-column: 70
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coding: utf-8
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End:
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