Functions unnecessarily called in Python/pylifecycle.c:_Py_InitializeCore() ?

[bartc]

On 01/03/2018 09:57, Thomas Nyberg wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I was playing around with cpython and noticed the following. The
> `_PyFrame_Init()` and `PyByteArray_Init()` functions are called in these
> two locations:
> 
> 	https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/master/Python/pylifecycle.c#L693-L694
> 	https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/master/Python/pylifecycle.c#L699-L700
> 
> But here are their function definitions and they appear to do nothing:
> 
> 	https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/master/Objects/frameobject.c#L555-L561
> 	https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/master/Objects/bytearrayobject.c#L24-L28
> 
> I can understand leaving the functions in the source for
> backwards-compatibility, but why are they still being called in
> `_Py_InitializeCore()`? Seems like it just adds noise for those new to
> the cpython internals. Is there some consistency doc that requires this
> or something?

If they're only called once, then it probably doesn't matter too much in 
terms of harming performance.

As for leaving them in, there might be a number of reasons. One, if one 
day some special initialisation does need to be done, then this gives a 
place to put it.

I quite often have an initialisation routine for a module, that 
sometimes ends up empty, but I keep it in anyway as often things can get 
added back.

(Old CPython source I have does do something in those functions. For 
example:

int _PyFrame_Init()
{
	builtin_object = PyUnicode_InternFromString("__builtins__");
	if (builtin_object == NULL)
		return 0;
	return 1;
}

)

-- 
Bartc