Schedule removal of PyUnicode_AsDecoded/Encoded functions

[StanFromIreland]

• PyUnicode_AsDecodedObject
• PyUnicode_AsDecodedUnicode
• PyUnicode_AsEncodedUnicode
• PyUnicode_AsEncodedObject

Were deprecated in 3.6 in 0093907 by @serhiy-storchaka

They have no documentation.

Will schedule them for removal in 3.15 as suggested by @vstinner in #46236 (comment)

Linked PRs

• gh-132798: Schedule removal of PyUnicode_AsDecoded/Encoded functions for 3.15 #132799

[hugovk]

Will schedule them for removal in 3.15 as suggested by @vstinner in #46236 (comment)

Before we schedule it, remember to do a code search first:

IMO now it's too late for the 3.14 release cycle. It would be better to schedule such removal at the start of a new dev cycle, such as Python 3.15. Someone also has to check if these functions are used in the wild (ex: run a code search).

Please can you do this?

For example, GitHub code search, https://grep.app, or https://hugovk.dev/blog/2022/how-to-search-5000-python-projects/.

[StanFromIreland]

I did a (github) code search and found no recent uses. (Some (~4 for each) old repositories that have not been updated in the last ~8 years.)

[vstinner]

A code search on PyPI top 8,000 PyPI projects found matches in 2 projects:

• nanobind (2.4.0)
• orjson (3.10.15)

I used the regex: PyUnicode_AsDecodedObject|PyUnicode_AsDecodedUnicode|PyUnicode_AsEncodedUnicode|PyUnicode_AsEncodedObject.

nanobind-2.4.0.tar.gz: nanobind-2.4.0/cmake/darwin-ld-cpython.sym: -U _PyUnicode_AsDecodedObject
nanobind-2.4.0.tar.gz: nanobind-2.4.0/cmake/darwin-ld-cpython.sym: -U _PyUnicode_AsDecodedUnicode
nanobind-2.4.0.tar.gz: nanobind-2.4.0/cmake/darwin-ld-cpython.sym: -U _PyUnicode_AsEncodedObject
nanobind-2.4.0.tar.gz: nanobind-2.4.0/cmake/darwin-ld-cpython.sym: -U _PyUnicode_AsEncodedUnicode
nanobind-2.4.0.tar.gz: nanobind-2.4.0/cmake/darwin-ld-pypy.sym: -U _PyPyUnicode_AsEncodedObject

orjson-3.10.15.tar.gz: orjson-3.10.15/include/pyo3/pyo3-ffi/src/unicodeobject.rs: pub fn PyUnicode_AsDecodedObject(
orjson-3.10.15.tar.gz: orjson-3.10.15/include/pyo3/pyo3-ffi/src/unicodeobject.rs: pub fn PyUnicode_AsDecodedUnicode(
orjson-3.10.15.tar.gz: orjson-3.10.15/include/pyo3/pyo3-ffi/src/unicodeobject.rs: #[cfg_attr(PyPy, link_name = "PyPyUnicode_AsEncodedObject")]
orjson-3.10.15.tar.gz: orjson-3.10.15/include/pyo3/pyo3-ffi/src/unicodeobject.rs: pub fn PyUnicode_AsEncodedObject(
orjson-3.10.15.tar.gz: orjson-3.10.15/include/pyo3/pyo3-ffi/src/unicodeobject.rs: pub fn PyUnicode_AsEncodedUnicode(

It seems safe to remove these functions.

[methane]

I am OK. But they are stable ABI. We need to convert them into abi only stable abi function that raise RuntimeError.

[vstinner]

I am OK. But they are stable ABI. We need to convert them into abi only stable abi function that raise RuntimeError.

This change doesn't remove functions, it only schedules the removal.

For the API removal, we can keep the functions unchanged in the stable ABI. There is no need to raise RuntimeError.