[Python-Dev] Windows installer and .pyc files mtime

[Tim Peters]

[Guido]
> If this isn't done, a problem might be (and this is why this is always
> done on Unix) that if the user who installs Python has more privileges
> than the user who uses Python, the user who uses Python may not be
> able to write the directory containing .pyc files, so they end up
> recompiling all modules each time they are loaded.
>
> I expect this will be more of a problem as typical Windows users and
> installations (e.g. XP) become more security aware, software is
> installed by Administrator, and users don't have Administrator
> privileges.
>
> I guess the way to implement it (and I believe Mark Hammond did indeed
> do this for win32all) is to run Python near the end of the installer
> with the compileall.py script as an argument.
>
> Feeling-quite-the-Windows-XP-expert-lately,

Cool.  If an organization has enough money to afford an administrator who
installs stuff for unprivileged masses, they have enough money to pay Thomas
to make this change <0.5 wink>.

Mark once told me he compiles stuff at the end of the win32all install
because generating Windows type libraries can take a long time, and users
griped about feeling the pain of that on first use otherwise.

That's a reason I can understand <wink>.  If you can too, then it's more
important to precompile everything needed for IDLE to start up the first
time.