Carbon.File.FSCatalogInfo should expose the finder info (which is somehow defined as an anonymous short array in the header) as the
correct Python object.

Here's a comment by Mark Day:
Yup, use the finderInfo.  It's really either FileInfo or FolderInfo (both from Finder.h), depending on whether the object is a file or folder.  Similarly, extFinderInfo is really either ExtendedFileInfo or ExtendedFolderInfo.  I think there was some circular header dependency that prevented Files.h from using the Finder types explicitly.

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Here's a patch for _Filemodule.c which exposes the
finderInfo. It
assumes it's always a FileInfo, which is not exactly right
-- you
may want to do things a bit more carefully.

Also, someone with more knowledge of bgen than me will have
to figure out what should really be patched and how.

--- _Filemodule.c.orig	Tue Oct 14 19:04:56 2003
+++ _Filemodule.c	Sun Sep 21 13:41:04 2003
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
+/*
+ *   This is a hacked version of _Filemodule.c from the
Python 2.3
+ *   distribution to support access to the finderInfo field
of the
+ *   FSCatalogInfo data structure.
+ */
 
 /* ========================== Module _File
========================== */
 
 #include "Python.h"
 
@@ -101,10 +106,23 @@
 	return Py_BuildValue("u#", itself->unicode, itself->length);
 }
 
 static PyObject *File_Error;
 
+/* ----------------------- Object type FInfo declarations
------------------------ */
+
+static PyTypeObject FInfo_Type;
+
+#define FInfo_Check(x) ((x)->ob_type == &FInfo_Type ||
PyObject_TypeCheck((x), &FInfo_Type))
+
+typedef struct FInfoObject {
+	PyObject_HEAD
+	FInfo ob_itself;
+} FInfoObject;
+
+static PyObject *FInfo_New(FInfo *itself);
+
 /* ------------------- Object type FSCatalogInfo
-------------------- */
 
 static PyTypeObject FSCatalogInfo_Type;
 
 #define FSCatalogInfo_Check(x) ((x)->ob_type ==
&FSCatalogInfo_Type || PyObject_TypeCheck((x),
&FSCatalogInfo_Type))
@@ -329,10 +347,25 @@
 {
 	return PyArg_Parse(v, "b", &self->ob_itself.userPrivileges)-1;
 	return 0;
 }
 
+static PyObject
*FSCatalogInfo_get_finderInfo(FSCatalogInfoObject *self,
void *closure)
+{
+	return FInfo_New((FInfo *)self->ob_itself.finderInfo);
+}
+
+static int FSCatalogInfo_set_finderInfo(FSCatalogInfoObject
*self, PyObject *v, void *closure)
+{
+	if (!FInfo_Check(v)) {
+		PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError, "Expected an FInfo object");
+		return -1;
+	}
+	*(FInfo *)self->ob_itself.finderInfo = ((FInfoObject
*)v)->ob_itself;
+	return 0;
+}
+
 static PyGetSetDef FSCatalogInfo_getsetlist[] = {
 	{"nodeFlags", (getter)FSCatalogInfo_get_nodeFlags,
(setter)FSCatalogInfo_set_nodeFlags, NULL},
 	{"volume", (getter)FSCatalogInfo_get_volume,
(setter)FSCatalogInfo_set_volume, NULL},
 	{"parentDirID", (getter)FSCatalogInfo_get_parentDirID,
(setter)FSCatalogInfo_set_parentDirID, NULL},
 	{"nodeID", (getter)FSCatalogInfo_get_nodeID,
(setter)FSCatalogInfo_set_nodeID, NULL},
@@ -347,10 +380,11 @@
 	{"dataPhysicalSize",
(getter)FSCatalogInfo_get_dataPhysicalSize,
(setter)FSCatalogInfo_set_dataPhysicalSize, NULL},
 	{"rsrcLogicalSize",
(getter)FSCatalogInfo_get_rsrcLogicalSize,
(setter)FSCatalogInfo_set_rsrcLogicalSize, NULL},
 	{"rsrcPhysicalSize",
(getter)FSCatalogInfo_get_rsrcPhysicalSize,
(setter)FSCatalogInfo_set_rsrcPhysicalSize, NULL},
 	{"sharingFlags", (getter)FSCatalogInfo_get_sharingFlags,
(setter)FSCatalogInfo_set_sharingFlags, NULL},
 	{"userPrivileges",
(getter)FSCatalogInfo_get_userPrivileges,
(setter)FSCatalogInfo_set_userPrivileges, NULL},
+	{"finderInfo", (getter)FSCatalogInfo_get_finderInfo,
(setter)FSCatalogInfo_set_finderInfo, NULL},
 	{NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL},
 };
 
 
 #define FSCatalogInfo_compare NULL
@@ -460,20 +494,11 @@
 };
 
 /* ----------------- End object type FSCatalogInfo
------------------ */
 
 
-/* ----------------------- Object type FInfo
------------------------ */
-
-static PyTypeObject FInfo_Type;
-
-#define FInfo_Check(x) ((x)->ob_type == &FInfo_Type ||
PyObject_TypeCheck((x), &FInfo_Type))
-
-typedef struct FInfoObject {
-	PyObject_HEAD
-	FInfo ob_itself;
-} FInfoObject;
+/* ----------------------- Object type FInfo implementation
------------------------ */
 
 static PyObject *FInfo_New(FInfo *itself)
 {
 	FInfoObject *it;
 	if (itself == NULL) return PyMac_Error(resNotFound);

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Greg,
could you attach the patch, in stead of having it inline? An inline 
patch is very difficult to get out of SF unscathed...

Can anyone salvage Gregory's inline patch?

I'm closing this as "wont fix" because the Carbon bindings are deprecated 
and are removed in Python 3.0.