[Python-Dev] Importing .pyc in -O mode and vice versa

[Greg Ewing]

Martin v. Löwis wrote:

> That should never be better: the system will cache the directory
> blocks, also, and it will do a better job than Python will.

If that's really the case, then why do discussions
of how improve Python startup speeds seem to focus
on the number of stat calls made?

Also, cacheing isn't the only thing to consider.
Last time I looked at the implementation of unix
file systems, they mostly seemed to do directory
lookups by linear search. Unless that's changed
a lot, I have a hard time seeing how that's
going to beat Python's highly-tuned dictionaries.

--
Greg