[Python-Dev] forwarded message from Stephen J. Turnbull

[Neil Hodgson]

Stephen J. Turnbull:
>     The preprocessing hook is a filter which is run to transform the
>     source code buffer on input.  It is the first thing done.  Python
>     (the language) will never put anything on that hook; any code that
>     requires a non-null hook to function is not "true" Python.  Thus
>     there need be no specification for the hook[1]; anything the user
>     puts on the hook is part of their environment.  The preprocessing
>     hook can be disabled via a command line switch and possibly an
>     environment variable (it might even make sense for the hook
>     function to be named in an environment variable, in which case a
>     null value would disable it).

   How does this spill into modules imported from the main script? Will
compiled modules need to have a hook marker, so they can be regenerated when
called with a different hook function?

   Neil