[Python-Dev] Reference counting when entering and exiting scopes

[Brett C.]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
>>So the two things I thought were glitches are actually cancelling each
>>other out.  Very good.  Thanks for your help.
> 
> 
> Though I wonder why it was written so delicately.

Don't know; Jeremy wrote those functions back in 2001 to add nested scopes.  If
he remembers he deserves a cookie for having such a good memory.

> Would explicit
> INCREF/DECREF really have hurt the performance that much? This is only
> the bytecode compiler, which isn't on the critical path.
> 

Probably not.  But at this point I doubt it is worth fixing since the AST
branch will replace it eventually (work is on-going, just slow since my thesis
is on the home stretch; initial draft is done and now I am editing to hand over
for final revision by my advisor).

-Brett