Marc-Andre Lemburg wrote:
> Both Python and the application will make certain assumptions about
> the platform depending on the compile time environment.

Can you give examples for this?

> So you need both the compile and the runtime version information.

I very much doubt that any feature in Python is actually enabled if
compiled under Linux 3. If so that's probably a bug in Python, due to
the small number of features added from 2.6.39 to 3.0. Either the
feature was introduced into Linux before 3.0, in which case Python
should use it as early as possible, or the feature was introduced in
some 3.x release, in which case not all Linux 3 builds will have it.

So the single digit major number will not be enough for this kind of
checks, and the safest way is to check for the feature itself, e.g. by
simply using it and handling NotImplementedException appropriately. That
approach is more portable for new platforms as well.