[Python-Dev] this is what happens if you freeze all the modules required for startup

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Thu, 17 Apr 2014 18:09:22 +0000
Brett Cannon <bcannon at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >    I would really love to have better startup times in production, but I
> > would also really hate to lose the ability to hack around in stdlib
> > sources during development just to get better startup performance.
> >
> >    In general, what I really like about using Python for software
> > development is the ability to open any stdlib file and easily go poking
> > around using stuff like 'import pdb;pdb.set_trace()' or simple print
> > statements. Researching mysterious behaviour is generally much much
> > MUCH! easier (read: takes less hours/days/weeks) if it ends up leading
> > into a stdlib Python module than if it takes you down into the bowels of
> > some C module (think zipimport.c *grin*). Not to mention the effect that
> > being able to quickly resolve a mystery by hacking on some Python
> > internals leaves you feeling very satisfied, while having to entrench
> > yourself in those internals for a long time just to find out you've made
> > something foolish on your end leaves you feeling exhausted at best.
> >
> 
> Freezing modules does not affect the ability to use gdb. And as long as you
> set the appropriate __file__ values then tracebacks will contain even the
> file line and location.

I sympathize with Jurko's opinion. Being able to poke inside stdlib
source files makes Python more approachable. I'm sure several of us got
into Python that way.

Regards

Antoine.