[Python-Dev] C API doc fix

Thu Sep 29 20:40:11 CEST 2005

Yesterday I ran into a bug in the C API docs. The top of this page:
 http://docs.python.org/api/unicodeObjects.html
says:
Py_UNICODE
 This type represents a 16-bit unsigned storage type which is 
used by Python internally as basis for holding Unicode ordinals. On 
platforms where wchar_t is available and also has 16-bits, Py_UNICODE 
is a typedef alias for wchar_t to enhance native platform 
compatibility. On all other platforms, Py_UNICODE is a typedef alias 
for unsigned short.
This is incorrect on some platforms: on Debian, Py_UNICODE turns out 
to be 32 bits.
I'm not sure what the correct quote should be: Does python use 
wchar_t whenever it's available (16 bits or not)?
I solved my problem by realizing that I was going about things 
entirely wrong, and that I should use the python codecs from C and 
not worry about what Py_UNICODE contains. However, I think we should 
fix the docs to avoid confusing others... or maybe it would be better 
to document what's in Py_UNICODE and suggest always using the codec 
methods? I don't have a strong opinion either way.
robey