April 6, 2009
4:57 p.m.
Cesare> At this time with Python 2.6.1 we have these results: Cesare> def f(): return 1 + 2 * 3 + 4j ... Cesare> def f(): return ['a', ('b', 'c')] * (1 + 2 * 3) Guido can certainly correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the main point of his message was that you aren't going to encounter a lot of code in Python which is amenable to traditional constant folding. For the most part, they will be assigned to symbolic "constants", which, unlike C preprocessor macros aren't really constants at all. Consequently, the opportunity for constant folding is minimal and probably introduces more opportunities for bugs than performance improvements. Skip