> David Edelsohn added the comment:
>
> This enhancement issue is not a demand that you or anyone else in the Python community volunteer to implement it. AIX is a very lucrative business and deployed in many businesses that the Python community would like to reach. Maybe you should broaden your viewpoint and think about why support for a "niche platform" could be beneficial for Python.

Sorry, but I stand by my claim: making Python work on AIX by fixing compilation bugs, or non-portable assumptions like the one in #19293 is a good thing, and such bugs should be fixed.
But adding a large chunk of AIX-specific code, which will only be used by a handful of users, and more importantly only debuggable and maintainable by a couple of contributors, is a whole different story.

My reaction would be the same if someone were to suggest implementing something similar for e.g. the Hurd (that's an example, I know there are more AIX users).

Also, AFAICT we don't have any *stable* AIX buildbot yet: at the very least, making the current test suite pass - and not merely by skipping tests - and having a stable AIX buildbot would be a prerequisite.

Furthermore, apparently AIX isn't an officially supported platform, see http://www.python.org/getit/other/

Having someone volunteer to write a patch isn't enough to have it merged.

But I'd like to have Martin's opinion, since he's the author and PEP 11, and usually has good insights on those issues.