Doc strings for a standalone app??

Peter Hansen peter at engcorp.com
Wed Jun 9 13:56:03 EDT 2004


Rick L. Ratzel wrote:

> The only perceived disadvantages that I'm aware of occur when you don't 
> use the -OO flag.  Docstrings end up in frozen executables and .pyc 
> files, visible through the use of the "strings" command (which is a 
> problem for people who think the information is hidden from the binary 
> file like a comment).  The binary files are also ever so slightly larger 
> when docstrings are used instead of comments.  However, using -OO 
> removes docstrings in addition to applying optimizations...the frozen 
> executable or resulting .pyo files have no docstrings and are a bit 
> smaller.

Good point, but this is hardly a disadvantage of docstrings *relative
to regular comments*, which aren't even included in the .pyc files
under any conditions, -OO or not...

-Peter



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