[Tim]
Break it into smaller steps so we can narrow down possible causes:
[Andrew Kuchling]
You should have cc'ed Barbara on that.
I did a Reply-All. In the copy I got back from Python-Dev, mattson@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov was in the cc list. If that didn't reach her, sorry, but I don't think I could have done more than I did.
I forwarded your message to her and she wrote back (eventually):
BTW, I forgot to pass this on yesterday, but I tried the code in Tim Peters' e-mail yesterday and the delay happens during the code = compile(...) statement.
So it's somehere in the front end -- that's a real help <wink>.
She's going to install sshd on her machine, so maybe this weekend I'll be able to log in, compile Python from source, and poke around in an effort to figure out what's going on.
Did she try Skip's suggestion to try pymalloc? Given that we believe there is no Mac-specific code here outside libc, the first suggestion was (and remains) the best. The front end will be doing a whale of a lot of mallocs. If it's like "the usual" malloc disease under glibc, the delays would appear during the free()s.