On 1/2/2011 10:18 PM, Guido van Rossum wrote:
My proposed way out of this conundrum has been to change the language semantics slightly so that global names which (a) coincide with a builtin, and (b) have no explicit assignment to them in the current module, would be fair game for such optimizations, with the understanding that the presence of e.g. "len = len" anywhere in the module (even in dead code!) would be sufficient to disable the optimization.
I believe this amounts to saying 1) Python code executes in three scopes (rather than two): global builtin, modular (misleadingly call global), and local. This much is a possible viewpoint today. 2) A name that is not an assignment target anywhere -- and that matches a builtin name -- is treated as a builtin. This is the new part, and it amounts to a rule for entire modules that is much like the current rule for separating local and global names within a function. The difference from the global/local rule would be that unassigned non-builtin names would be left to runtime resolution in globals. It would seem that this new rule would simplify the lookup of module ('global') names since if xxx in not in globals, there is no need to look in builtins. This is assuming that following 'len=len' with 'del len' cannot 'unmodularize' the name. For the rule to work 'retroactively' within a module as it does within functions would require a similar preliminary pass. So it could not work interactively. Should batch mode main modules work the same as when imported? Interactive mode could work as it does at present or with slight modification, which would be that builtin names within functions, if not yet overriden, also get resolved when the function is compiled. -- Terry Jan Reedy