Performance of Blocks in Python

[Dilip]

I read a couple of interesting blog posts about the performance of
blocks in languages like Ruby, Python here[1] and here[2].  The posts
start out questioning Ruby but towards the middle and the end it does
draw analogies between python's design decision to introduce 'with'
statement as a language extension rather than a closure.

[1] http://pluralsight.com/blogs/dbox/archive/2006/05/09/23068.aspx
[2] http://pluralsight.com/blogs/dbox/archive/2006/05/08/23001.aspx