pyc / pyo architecture independent?

[Terry Hancock]

This question was brought up by packagers trying to set
policy for including Python modules in Debian Gnu/Linux:

Are the .pyc / .pyo files safely architecture independent?
(I.e. are they now, and are they likely or even guaranteed
to remain so?).

I know the bytecode can change between interpreter
versions and other interpreters like Jython, Stackless, and
PyPy (does that exist yet?) may not even choose to
make them.  But given that the same interpreter is made
available, will they work on, say, an ARM processor,
a 68K, and a i386 sharing them on the same network?

Thanks for any comments,
Terry
-- 
Terry Hancock
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com/