[New-bugs-announce] [issue36000] __debug__ is a keyword but not a keyword

[Dan Snider]

New submission from Dan Snider <mr.assume.away at gmail.com>:

keyword.py is used by stuff like the idle colorizer to help determine if an identifier is considered a keyword but it doesn't identify __debug__ despite the fact that the parser treats it exactly the same as None, True, and False. I could not find a more recent issue to bring this back up than #34464 and there it was suggested a issue be made so here it is. 

As mentioned on that previous issue, currently keyword.py builds the list automatically by scanning "Python/graminit.c" but since there is no "__debug__" token to be found in that file it doesn't get added to kwlist.

There is a file that groups the keywords True, False, None, and __debug__: ast.c. But there's no reason for it to be that complicated when nothing would break by for example adding on line 54 of keyword.py the statement "kwlist += ['__debug__']?

Actually, I'm interested in knowing why __debug__ is a keyword in the first place. I'm terrible at searching apparently so there might be more but from what I can tell, the only thing the docs have to say about __debug__ really is the following tautology: "The value for the built-in variable [__debug__] is determined when the interpreter starts."

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components: Library (Lib)
messages: 335605
nosy: bup
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: __debug__ is a keyword but not a keyword
type: enhancement
versions: Python 3.6, Python 3.7, Python 3.8

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<https://bugs.python.org/issue36000>
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