[Python-Dev] PEP 3147: PYC Repository Directories

[exarkun at twistedmatrix.com]

On 08:21 pm, barry at python.org wrote:
>On Feb 03, 2010, at 01:17 PM, Guido van Rossum wrote:
>>Can you clarify? In Python 3, __file__ always points to the source.
>>Clearly that is the way of the future. For 99.99% of uses of __file__,
>>if it suddenly never pointed to a .pyc file any more (even if one
>>existed) that would be just fine. So what's this talk of switching to
>>__source__?
>
>Upon further reflection, I agree.  __file__ also points to the source 
>in
>Python 2.7.  Do we need an attribute to point to the compiled bytecode 
>file?

What if, instead of trying to annotate the module object with this 
assortment of metadata - metadata which depends on lots of things, and 
can vary from interpreter to interpreter, and even from module to module 
(depending on how it was loaded) - we just stuck with the __loader__ 
annotation, and encouraged/allowed/facilitated the use of the loader 
object to learn all of this extra information?

Jean-Paul