[Python-Dev] Windows installer and .pyc files mtime

[Guido van Rossum]

I was watching file modification times on my Windows box (strange
hobby, I know :-), and I noticed that after a fresh install of Python,
the .pyc files seem to be written when the first code that imports the
corresponding module runs, rather than all of the .pyc files being
compiled at once by the installer.  Wasn't there code in the installer
that precompiles all modules?  I know the Unix install does this, and
I vaguely remember that the Windows installer did this too -- or was
it only the Win32all installer???  If there's code to do that in the
Windows installer now, it seems it's not working.  If there isn't such
code, perhaps there should be?

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)