Strip out the last lingering vestiges of Windows CE support

[larryhastings]

BPO	27355
Nosy	@malemburg, @tim-one, @mhammond, @larryhastings, @tjguk, @zware, @zooba
Files	larry.dont.wince.1.patch.txt larry.dont.wince.2.patch.txt

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/larryhastings'
closed_at = <Date 2016-09-05.22:12:16.270>
created_at = <Date 2016-06-20.07:36:20.196>
labels = ['interpreter-core', 'tests', 'type-feature', 'library']
title = 'Strip out the last lingering vestiges of Windows CE support'
updated_at = <Date 2016-09-06.02:20:11.866>
user = 'https://github.com/larryhastings'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2016-09-06.02:20:11.866>
actor = 'python-dev'
assignee = 'larry'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2016-09-05.22:12:16.270>
closer = 'larry'
components = ['Interpreter Core', 'Library (Lib)', 'Tests']
creation = <Date 2016-06-20.07:36:20.196>
creator = 'larry'
dependencies = []
files = ['43481', '44378']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 27355
keywords = []
message_count = 10.0
messages = ['268886', '268923', '268929', '271591', '274434', '274436', '274444', '274446', '274447', '274498']
nosy_count = 8.0
nosy_names = ['lemburg', 'tim.peters', 'mhammond', 'larry', 'tim.golden', 'python-dev', 'zach.ware', 'steve.dower']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'low'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue27355'
versions = ['Python 3.6']

[larryhastings]

I can't tell if CPython ever really officially supported Windows CE or not. There are some checkins around 2.5 that suggest there was at least partial support. However posixmodule was supposed to be renamed "ce" on Windows CE, and that was never checked in. (There was an external fork called "Python CE" for a while which *did* make this change.)

In any case, Windows CE support never survived the transition to Python 3. It has clearly never even been compiled since Python 3.0 shipped. In addition, the external "Python CE" project is dead; their last supported Python version was 2.5, back in 2007. Windows CE appears to still be around as an embedded OS, but I don't think it's a user-visible OS. The days of Windows CE palmtops is long gone. And it's incontrevertably true: Python is no longer supported on Windows CE--if indeed it ever was.

So it's time for some late-spring cleaning! The attached patch removes all remaining vestiges of Python's support for Windows CE.

A couple of minor questions/notes:

• I did a search-and-destroy for "ce", which lead me to _WIN32_WCE and MS_WINCE.

• I wasn't sure if I should touch Lib/platform.py. (MAL?)

• I'm pretty sure I shouldn't touch config.sub, zlib, or ctypes.

Could one of you Windows guys apply the patch and tell me if anything blows up?

[zware]

+1

Doesn't break anything in a x64 build for me. Modules/_ctypes/libffi_arm_wince/ should also be removed, though (it's a private, ancient copy of libffi that has never actually been used as far as I can tell).

[larryhastings]

Nosying two people who I know worked on the port originally, just in case they have an opinion about removing WinCE.

(Remind me. Why is our private copy of libffi a divergent unmaintained fork? libffi still gets updates; last update was two years ago. Why can't we just... update ours?)

[zware]

See bpo-23085 for more about our libffi situation.

For this issue, with silence from Tim and Mark I say commit at will (and kill Modules/_ctypes/libffi_arm_wince/ as well).

[larryhastings]

Refreshed the patch. With a Misc/NEWS entry I think it's ready for checkin. WFM on Linux 64-bit with gcc; can I get people to try other platforms?

• os x (clang)
• win32
• win64

[zooba]

I'm building on Windows now.

[zware]

LGTM on Win32, Win64, and OSX.

[python-dev]

New changeset 7a2eccee823b by Larry Hastings in branch 'default':
Issue bpo-27355: Removed support for Windows CE. It was never finished,
https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/7a2eccee823b

[larryhastings]

Committed. Bye bye Windows CE!