PEP 304 - is anyone really interested?

[Skip Montanaro]

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