[Python-ideas] RFC: PEP: Add dict.__version__

[Andrew Barnert]

On Jan 10, 2016, at 05:01, Victor Stinner <victor.stinner at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Andrew Barnert:
>> Which implies to me that the PEPs really need to anticipate and answer these questions.
> 
> The dict.__version__ PEP mentions FAT python as an use case. In fact,
> I should point to the func.specialize() PEP which already explains
> partially the motivation for static optimizers:
> https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0510/#rationale

Sure, linking to PEP 510 instead of repeating its while rationale seems perfectly reasonable to me.

> But ok I will enhance the PEP 510 rationale to explain why static
> optimizers makes sense in Python, maybe even more sense than a JIT
> compiler in some cases (short living programs). By the way, I think
> that Mercurial is a good example of short living program.

If CPython is already faster than PyPy for hg, and your optimization makes it faster, then you've got a great answer for "why should anyone care about making CPython a little faster?" Can you benchmark that, or at least a toy app that simulates the same kind of work?

Anyway, my point is just that it would be nice if, the next time someone raises the same kind of objection (because I'll bet it comes up when you post to -dev on the next pass, from people who don't read -ideas), you could just say "read this section of PEP 509 and that section of PEP 510 and then tell me what objections you still have", instead of needing to repeat the arguments you've already made.