I wrote PEP 304, "Controlling Generation of Bytecode Files": http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0304.html
quite awhile ago. The first version appeared in January 2003 in response to questions from people about controlling/suppressing bytecode generation in certain situations. It sat idle for a long while, though from time-to-time people would ask about the functionality and I'd respond or update the PEP. In response to another recent question about this topic: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2005-June/284775.html and a wave of recommendations by Raymond Hettinger regarding several other PEPs, I updated the patch to work with current CVS. Aside from one response by Thomas Heller noting that my patch upload failed (and which has been corrected since), I've seen no response either on python-dev or comp.lang.python. I really have no personal use for this functionality. I control all the computers on which I use Python and don't use any exotic hardware (which includes Windows as far with its multi-rooted file system as far as I'm concerned), don't run from read-only media or think that in-memory file systems are much of an advantage over OS caching. The best I will ever do with it is respond to people's inputs. I'd hate to see it sit for another two years. If someone out there is interested in this functionality and would benefit more from its incorporation into the core, I'd be happy to hand it off to you. So speak up folks, otherwise my recommendation is that it be put out of its misery. Skip -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list