Re: MemoryView missing from Python 2.4 and 2.6

[Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com>]

> > It looks like the patch is also removing the feature from users of
> > Python 2.7.x, though, is it not?
> 
> The patch (see
> https://sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2017-03/msg00039.html) does not
> remove any feature.  The patch changes the return type of one function
> from "memoryview" to "buffer" for Python 2.7 and below.  Both types
> support the "in" keyword, indexed access, length etc. and behave very
> similar.  Granted, memoryview has some additional functions that lets
> the user inspect the stride and size of the elements in the buffer,
> but this is a feature we do not use here anyway.
> 
> I chose 2.7 as a parting point because that is how it is  handled in
> infpy_read_memory in py-inferior.c.  Personally, I would leave it that
> way because with "buffer" exposed with Python 2.7 as well as Python
> 2.6 and below, I guess it gets more exposure and testing and won't
> suffer bit-rot as easily.
> 
> The patch is tested with Python 2.7 and Python 3.6.  I cannot test it
> with Python 2.6 but that should not be necessary as these two versions
> already check both different return types.

OK, that seems sensible for me indeed. Thanks for taking the time
to explain!

-- 
Joel