In C++, it's an error to pass a string literal to a char* function
without a const_cast(). Rather than require every C++ extension
module to put a cast around string literals, fix the API to state the
const-ness.
I focused on parts of the API where people usually pass literals:
PyArg_ParseTuple() and friends, Py_BuildValue(), PyMethodDef, the type
slots, etc. Predictably, there were a large set of functions that
needed to be fixed as a result of these changes. The most pervasive
change was to make the keyword args list passed to
PyArg_ParseTupleAndKewords() to be a const char *kwlist[].
One cast was required as a result of the changes: A type object
mallocs the memory for its tp_doc slot and later frees it.
PyTypeObject says that tp_doc is const char *; but if the type was
created by type_new(), we know it is safe to cast to char *.
[ 984722 ] Py_BuildValue loses reference counts on error
I'm ever-so-slightly uneasy at the amount of work this can do with an
exception pending, but I don't think that this can result in anything
more serious than a strange error message.
__module__ is the string name of the module the function was defined
in, just like __module__ of classes. In some cases, particularly for
C functions, the __module__ may be None.
Change PyCFunction_New() from a function to a macro, but keep an
unused copy of the function around so that we don't change the binary
API.
Change pickle's save_global() to use whichmodule() if __module__ is
None, but add the __module__ logic to whichmodule() since it might be
used outside of pickle.
descriptor, as used for the tp_methods slot of a type. These new flag
bits are both optional, and mutually exclusive. Most methods will not
use either. These flags are used to create special method types which
exist in the same namespace as normal methods without having to use
tedious construction code to insert the new special method objects in
the type's tp_dict after PyType_Ready() has been called.
If METH_CLASS is specified, the method will represent a class method
like that returned by the classmethod() built-in.
If METH_STATIC is specified, the method will represent a static method
like that returned by the staticmethod() built-in.
These flags may not be used in the PyMethodDef table for modules since
these special method types are not meaningful in that case; a
ValueError will be raised if these flags are found in that context.
