Thanks Barry, for tracking down that this is intentional.

I wonder how one gets this value in Python code now? For example, the reason I stumbled upon this in the first place is that there is some code in PyCrypto (https://github.com/dlitz/pycrypto/blob/master/lib/Crypto/SelfTest/PublicKey/test_RSA.py#L464) that uses `get_config_var("SO")` thusly:

```
    except ImportError:
        from distutils.sysconfig import get_config_var
        import inspect
        _fm_path = os.path.normpath(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(
            inspect.getfile(inspect.currentframe())))
            +"/../../PublicKey/_fastmath"+get_config_var("SO"))
        if os.path.exists(_fm_path):
            raise ImportError("While the _fastmath module exists, importing "+
                "it failed. This may point to the gmp or mpir shared library "+
                "not being in the path. _fastmath was found at "+_fm_path)
```

What would be the way to express this now in Python >= 3.4?