[Python-ideas] Move optional data out of pyc files

[Stephan Houben]

There are libraries out there like this:

https://docopt.readthedocs.io/en/0.2.0/

which use docstrings for runtime info.

Today we already have -OO which allows us to create docstring-less bytecode
files in case we have, after careful consideration, established that it is
safe to do so.

I think the current way (-OO) to avoid docstring loading is the correct one.
It pushes the responsibility on whoever did the packaging to decide if -OO
is appropriate.

The ability to remove the docstrings after bytecode generation would be
kinda nice
(similar to Unix "strip" command)
but given how fast bytecode compilation is, frankly I don't think it is
very important.

Stephan

2018-04-10 19:54 GMT+02:00 Zachary Ware <zachary.ware+pydev at gmail.com>:

> On Tue, Apr 10, 2018 at 12:38 PM, Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
> > A deployed Python distribution generally has .pyc files for all of the
> > standard library. I don't think people want to lose the ability to
> > call help(), and unless I'm misunderstanding, that requires
> > docstrings. So this will mean twice as many files and twice as many
> > file-open calls to import from the standard library. What will be the
> > impact on startup time?
>
> What about instead of separate files turning the single file into a
> pseudo-zip file containing all of the proposed files, and provide a
> simple tool for removing whatever parts you don't want?
>
> --
> Zach
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