
Steven Elliott wrote:
a pyc file referencing a global in a module may have been compiled with a different version of that module (that is "some_module.some_global" can't compiled to single fixed index since stuff may shift around in "some_module").
Not sure I quite follow that. Since the code in the .pyc file is what sets the module up in the first place, it can set up the array to suit its own use of global symbols. The only way this could go wrong was if you extracted the code out of a function compiled for one module and surgically implanted it in another, but if you're hacking at that level you deserve what you get. I think it's actually possible to combine all the ideas suggested so far. Builtins are assigned predefined indexes for a particular bytecode version, and each module assigns indexes its own way for other globals it uses. Builtins can have dedicated opcodes which perform a fast check for shadowing in the module and builtin arrays. Everything goes as fast as possible while still allowing anything to be overridden. Greg