2010/12/31 <skip@pobox.com>I wish the Python compiler would adopt a strategy of being able to disable optimizations. I wrote a bug about a "leaky abstraction" optimization messing up coverage testing 2.5 years ago, and it was closed as won't fix: http://bugs.python.org/issue2506. The debate there centered around, "but that line isn't executed, because it's been optimized away." It's common in sophisticated compilers (as in, any C compiler) to be able to choose whether you want optimizations for speed, or disabling optimizations for debugging and reasoning about the code. Python would benefit from the same choice.
>> Another example. I can totally remove the variable i, just using the
>> stack, so a debugger (or, in general, having the tracing enabled)
>> cannot even find something to change about it.Ethan> -1
Ethan> Debugging is challenging enough as it is -- why would you want to
Ethan> make it even more difficult?
<snarky>
I don't know. Maybe he wants his program to run faster.
</snarky>
:D
"Aggressive" optimizations can be enabled with explicit options, in order to leave normal "debugger-prone" code.
If you use print statements for the bulk of your debugging (many people do),
unrolling loops doesn't affect your debugging ability.
Skip
It's a common practice. Also IDEs helps a lot, and advanced interactive shells too (such as DreamPie).
Cesare
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