On Sat, Jul 9, 2011 at 6:38 PM, Ben Finney <ben+pyt...@benfinney.id.au> wrote: > Eric Snow <ericsnowcurren...@gmail.com> writes: > >> On Sat, Jul 9, 2011 at 4:41 PM, Ben Finney <ben+pyt...@benfinney.id.au> >> wrote: >> > Eric Snow <ericsnowcurren...@gmail.com> writes: >> >> No other objects have code objects. No other objects in Python have >> >> this special optimization. >> > >> > Yes. The two facts are directly related. > […] > >> > Yes, functions are different and are treated differently. What's >> > your question? >> >> My point is that functions are special in Python because they provide >> a built in optimization via the special execution of code objects. > > Functions are special because they define a code object. >
Right. But the point is that the code objects (in CPython at least) allow a special execution of the function body. What does that special execution give us? I am guessing a sufficient performance increase. Is there anything else? And do other Python implementations do anything special with code objects? I am not questioning why it was done a certain way, but rather trying to understand how Python works. >> I would like to know if it is really that big a deal > > Is *what* really that big a deal? > > Perhaps this could be clearer if you'd describe what it is that > surprises you, and how you'd expect it to be different. > I don't have any unexpected failure that I ran into or anything like that. I am just trying to learn more about the ins and outs of Python and that tracker issue got me thinking. And I know that there are plenty of people on this list that know a lot more about Python than I do. :) So I thought I would ask (in my own obscure way) if I was understanding the definition/execution model correctly. Sorry for any confusion. -eric >> and if the optimized execution of code objects is a CPython >> implementation detail or a specification of the language. > > I don't know that it's a specification. But functions result in code > objects, and other statements don't; I am not seeing why treating them > differently is surprising. > > -- > \ “I see little commercial potential for the Internet for at | > `\ least ten years.” —Bill Gates, 1994 | > _o__) | > Ben Finney > -- > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list > -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
