[Python-Dev] 2.3 startup speed?

[Just van Rossum]

Skip Montanaro wrote:

>     Martin> Yes, MAL checked in a patch, to remove re usage in
>     Martin> encodings/__init__.py. Nobody ever verified whether this
had any
>     Martin> impact - most likely the impact was not significant.
> 
> I thought that part of the problem was continued attempts to look for
> modules in the usually non-existent python23.zip.  I believe Just
> said something about the current structure requiring it to remain in
> sys.path even if it doesn't exist.

Yes. I was hoping to find the time to work on the new import mechanism
before b1, and then before b2, but didn't. While it's clear that a
non-existing zip file on sys.path has _some_ effect, I'm not at all
convinced it's the most significant source of the startup slowdown since
2.2. It would be great to know to what extent MAL's patch helped.

Just