[Python-ideas] Line-by-line profiling

[Todd]

Currently, the python profiler works at the function or method level.  This
is good for identifying slow functions, but not so good for identifying
things like slow for loops inside larger functions.  You can use timers,
but putting a lot of times in its cumbersome and makes direct comparison
between potential hotspots difficult.  And although we should, in practice
it isn't airways feasible to refactor or code so there is only one major
hotspot per function or method.

A solution to this is to have a profiler that shows the execution time for
each line (cumulative and per-call).  Currently there is the third-party
line-profiler, but at least to me this seems like the sort of common
functionality that belongs in the standard library.  line-profiler also
requires the use of a decorator since it has a large performance penalty,
and perhaps a more deeply integrated line-by-line profiler could avoid this.
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