PEP 3147 - new .pyc format

[Daniel Fetchinson]

>>> Personally, I think it is a terribly idea to keep the source file and
>>> byte code file in such radically different places. They should be kept
>>> together. What you call "clutter" I call having the files that belong
>>> together kept together.
>>
>> I see why you think so, it's reasonable, however there is compelling
>> argument, I think, for the opposite view: namely to keep things
>> separate. An average developer definitely wants easy access to .py
>> files. However I see no good reason for having access to .pyc files. I
>> for one have never inspected a .pyc file. Why would you want to have a
>> .pyc file at hand?
>
> If you don't care about access to .pyc files, why do you care where they
> are? If they are in a subdirectory module.pyr, then shrug and ignore the
> subdirectory.
>
> If you (generic you) are one of those developers who don't care
> about .pyc files, then when you are browsing your source directory and
> see this:
>
>
> module.py
> module.pyc
>
> you just ignore the .pyc file. Or delete it, and Python will re-create it
> as needed. So if you see
>
> module.pyr/
>
> just ignore that as well.
>
>
>
>> If we don't really want to have .pyc files in convenient locations
>> because we (almost) never want to access them really, then I'd say it's
>> a good idea to keep them totally separate and so make don't get in the
>> way.
>
> I like seeing them in the same place as the source file, because when I
> start developing a module, I often end up renaming it multiple times
> before it settles on a final name. When I rename or move it, I delete
> the .pyc file, and that ensures that if I miss changing an import, and
> try to import the old name, it will fail.
>
> By hiding the .pyc file elsewhere, it is easy to miss deleting one, and
> then the import won't fail, it will succeed, but use the old, obsolete
> byte code.


Okay, I see your point but I think your argument about importing shows
that python is doing something suboptimal because I have to worry
about .pyc files. Ideally, I only would need to worry about python
source files. There is now a chance to 'fix' (quotation marks because
maybe there is nothing to fix, according to some) this issue and make
all pyc files go away and having python magically doing the right
thing. A central pyc repository would be something I was thinking
about, but I admit it's a half baked or not even that, probably
quarter baked idea.

Cheers,
Daniel

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