If I am wrong, the counter-example should provide a _clear reason_ why all my arguments above are wrong. And wouldn't that be great :-) I believe the arguments given should be given greater weight than the "psyco has more knowledge" mantra. You want to convince me otherwise? Show me the code, or provide a _detailed_ explanation for how my arguments do not apply.
Edward
Firstly, C compilation is static. Secondly, python can do plenty of stuff that can't be easily transliterated into C. I doubt any current C compilers would be able to optimize a C version of the following code (regardless of the practicality of it)... PythonWin 2.2.2 (#37, Oct 14 2002, 17:02:34) [MSC 32 bit (Intel)] on win32. Portions Copyright 1994-2001 Mark Hammond (mhammond@skippinet.com.au) - see 'Help/About PythonWin' for further copyright information.
def crazyRPC_getAge(username): .. """ .. Pretend this is a real RPC call, .. and a black box to the compiler. .. """ .. if username == "Bob": .. return 23 #int .. elif username == "Doug": .. return 12.5 #float .. else: .. raise Exception("Unknown user %s" % username) .. def drinkingAge(age): .. def test(): .. return age >= 21 .. return test .. bobCanDrink = drinkingAge(crazyRPC_getAge("Bob")) #returns function optimized for ints bobCanDrink() 1 dougCanDrink = drinkingAge(crazyRPC_getAge("Doug")) #returns function optimized for floats dougCanDrink() 0