[Python-Dev] deprecating .pyo and -O

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Thu, 14 Jun 2012 12:58:16 +0100
Floris Bruynooghe <flub at devork.be> wrote:
> On 14 June 2012 11:25, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
> > Honestly, I think the best option would be to deprecate .pyo files as
> > well as the useless -O option. They only cause confusion without
> > providing any significant benefits.
> 
> +1
> 
> But what happens to __debug__ and assert statements?  I think it
> should be possible to always put assert statements inside a __debug__
> block and then create -O a simple switch for setting __debug__ to
> False.  If desired a simple strip tool could then easily remove
> __debug__ blocks and (unused) docstrings.

I don't really see the point. In my experience there is no benefit to
removing assert statements in production mode. This is a C-specific
notion that doesn't really map very well to Python code. Do other
high-level languages have similar functionality?

Regards

Antoine.