On a platform where dynamic loading is unsupported, the function "imp_load_dynamic" is not compiled (Python/import.c:1775), and the Python function "load_dynamic" (Python/import.c:1845) will not be included in the _imp module.  However, Lib/imp.py attempts to import "load_dynamic" from _imp (Lib/imp.py:9), causing an ImportError if dynamic loading is unsupported.  

The interpreter is unable to start under these circumstances.  The error was encountered on m68k-atari-mint using GCC as the compiler.  This platform is a desktop environment, but has no support for true shared objects and libraries.

The attached patch should fix the issue. Can you give it a try, please?

LGTM

I should say LGTM in terms of looking at the patch, not actually trying it out. =)

I did just realize, though, there is no test for temporarily setting load_dynamic() to None in imp.py to make sure the expected exception is raised.

The patch works with respect to allowing the interpreter to start, and importing modules from the interpreter seems to be working fine.  I can't speak to Brett's concerns about possible side effects of setting load_dynamic to None.

Given the current (3.3) imp.py docstring
"""This module provides the components needed to build your own __import__ function.  Undocumented functions are obsolete.
In most cases it is preferred you consider using the importlib module's
functionality over this module.
"""
I wonder why it is being imported on startup. Is this an obsolete holdover.

---
The patch solves the problem of importing a non-existing load_dynamic, but
-        elif type_ == C_EXTENSION:
+        elif type_ == C_EXTENSION and load_dynamic is not None:
             return load_dynamic(name, filename, file)

With this change, an attempt to import a C_EXTENSION file will fall through to 
        else:
            msg =  "Don't know how to import {} (type code {})".format(name, type_)
            raise ImportError(msg, name=name)

Jeffery: does your m68k-atari-mint have no C_EXTENSION files, so that this will never be a problem? On my Windows system, _tkinter is one such, with the following outcome.

import imp
imp.load_dynamic
>>> imp.load_module('tk2', *imp.find_module('_tkinter'))
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#13>", line 1, in <module>
    imp.load_module('tk2', *imp.find_module('_tkinter'))
  File "C:\Programs\Python33\lib\imp.py", line 164, in load_module
    return load_dynamic(name, filename, file)
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable

Or is this not a problem because deprecated imp.load_module is never actually used?

___
Brett: by 'expected exception', do you mean the one above? or the one that is caught by the patch?

Another question: load_dynamic has a public name but is un-documented. Does that make it private enough that we can freely rebind it to None? Perhaps it does not matter since we are only doing this on machines where Python does not even start, so we won't disable a working imp.load_dynamic call if there is one somewhere (including the stdlib).

___
If imp.load_dynamic is private, then its import into imp can be removed once deprecated load_module is removed, making this issue moot.

Terry:  If I'm understanding this correctly, C_EXTENSION implies a dynamically loaded module authored in C.  The issue on FreeMiNT, the operating system in question, is that there is no support for true shared objects.  Any C modules must be statically linked with the Python executable.  I'm thinking the answer is "No, it won't be a problem on m68k-atari-mint," if I'm understanding the meaning of "C_EXTENSION" correctly.

load_dynamic should probably be documented since it does something you can't do on your own and importlib itself uses it.

As for the exception test, it should be to make sure ImportError is raised (i.e. the 'else' clause is hit).

The misleading docs Terry pointed out should also be fixed to note that "imp" is still used to expose some functionality where importlib really does need help from the underlying platform (such as loading dynamic modules).

Is Christian's patch going to be sufficient for the time being?  Just curious.

Yes, Christian's patch should do the trick for fixing the problem you reported, Jeffrey.

Sorry, I think my question was a bit vague.  Christian's patch does, in fact, work fine for fixing the problem as reported.  I was wondering if the patch was sufficient to close the bug with a commit.  I didn't know if other work was ongoing to close this issue.

A commit to Python 3.3 and 3.4 would be enough to close this bug. Just a matter of Christian or someone else finding the time.

New changeset d5aa922f97f9 by Brett Cannon in branch '3.3':
Issue #16880: _imp.load_dynamic() is not defined on a platform that
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/d5aa922f97f9

In honour of Jeffrey's lightning talk at PyCon 2013, I just committed the fix!

And this was merged into default in http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/3c3c9ad7c297 but for some reason it didn't show up attached to this issue.