This patch refactores Python/import.c.

find_module() was changed to return an PyObject*
pointer which contains the module's pathname, instead
of filling out a char* buffer.

load_module() accepts the PyObject* pathname instead of
a char*.

The patch is probably missing some error checking, and
the 8 character hack for loading extensions on OS2 is
not implemented, but the test case runs without errors
on Windows XP pro.

If a change in spirit of this patch is accepted, I'm
willing to further work on it so that eventually
unicode entries on sys.path, which can not be encoded
with the default file system encodings, will work as
expected (currently they don't).

See also:
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2004-December/256969.html

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Applied the patch and built on OS X.  This was the result:

$ ./python.exe 
'import site' failed; use -v for traceback
../Python/import.c:1496: failed assertion `dirlen <= MAXPATHLEN'
Abort trap

dirlen is 796092779, which seems fishy :)  An uninitialized variable, 
maybe?  Haven't looked, really...

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Yes, I overlooked that the initialization of the variables
is inside an #if defined(MS_WINDOWS) block.
Probably it would be better to leave the signature of
case_ok() as before and call it through a wrapper which
converts the arguments.

I will prepare a new patch in a few days.

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Perhaps there should be multiple implementations of case_ok ... i.e.

#if PLAT1
int case_ok(...)
{
...
}
#elif PLAT2
int case_ok(...)
{
...
}
#endif

the current spaghetti is confusing, even by the standards of import.c...

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New patch attached with multiple implementations of case_ok,
and more error checking: import.c.patch2

Slightly tested on OSX, Linux, Windows.

The case_ok function still needs to be fixed for RISCOS
(which I cannot test).

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For easier reading, I've attached the complete, new
Python/import.c file.

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Martin, this is the first step for making unicode entries on
sys.path work the way that is expected on Windows.  You
requested patches, so please take a look, if you have time.
Otherwise, unassign yourself.

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Unassigning from MvL.

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Self rejecting.  The patch is out of date now, and there
seems zero interest in it.