[Python-Dev] Fast access to __builtins__

[Guido van Rossum]

> > I don't think it's necessary to forbid things at the C API level in
> > the sense of making it impossible to do.  We'll just document
> > that C code shouldn't do that.
> 
> What about Python code that modifies that module __dict__ directly?  For
> example, using vars() or globals() to get a reference to it and doing
> __setitem__ on it.  My warning code only catches assignments that go
> through the module tp_setattro slot.  I suppose warning about direct
> __dict__ poking would require a proxy object to wrap the module dict.

Yeah, that's another niggling issue.  It would be a shame if using
globals() or vars() anywhere in a module would disable this
optimization.  But we can't make these return a proxy either, because
they are frequently used with e.g. "exec ... in globals()".

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