[Python-Dev] disable writing .py[co]

[Skip Montanaro]

    >> All that happens is that when you go to read or write a .pyc file is
    >> that you prepend PYCROOT to the full path to the .py source file in
    >> addition to adding a 'c' to the end.

    Thomas> Wouldn't that place all the (incompatible) pyc files in the same
    Thomas> directory?

Nope.  If PYCROOT was set to /tmp and found the socket module in
/usr/lib/python2.3/socket.py, the corresponding .pyc file would be
/tmp/usr/lib/python2.3/socket.pyc. 

    >> * it's not obvious (to me) what the semantics should be on multi-root
    >> systems like Windows (I can see a couple alternatives).

    Thomas> I cannot understand this sentence. What do you mean?

On Windows, the current working directory exists on each drive.  If I set
PYCROOT to C:\TEMP and locate socket.py in D:\PYTHON23\socket.py, what
should the full path to the .pyc file be?  What if I set it to simply \TEMP
(omitting a drive letter)?  I won't elaborate all the possibilities, because
I will probably forget some reasonable options, however, maybe the most
straightforward approach would be to do like Cygwin does.  Force PYCROOT to
refer to a single directory (tie down the drive letter, even if omitted) and
treat the drive letter in module file paths as a directory component.  Given
PYCROOT of C:\TEMP and socket.py on D: as above, the .pyc file might
reasonably be C:\TEMP\D\PYTHON23\socket.pyc.

Skip